Cornell Columnist Targeted

An image of the anonymously-distributed, flyers as posted by The Cornell Review.

When freshmen at Cornell ventured out of their dorms on Thursday, they happened upon an unfortunate display: flyers attacking the daily newspaper’s conservative columnist as a “racist rape apologist” had been scattered around the University’s first-year residences in an anonymous protest of his editorial positions.

As first reported by our peers at The Cornell Review, the offending flyers appeared around lunchtime and quickly drew the attention of many in Ithaca. Their target was Cornell senior and conservative columnist, Julius Kairey, who had recently written several articles dealing with sexual assault, ethnicity, and related campus political issues. It was his opinions on these matters that presumably led the culprits to print a photo of him with the caption, “Daily Sun Columnist and Racist Rape Apologist.”

Regardless of whether or not the flyers are an example of criminal harassment, The Dartmouth Review joins The Cornell Review in expressing its regret that divergent opinions are so often greeted with this sort of hostility on today’s campus. Illiberal episodes of this nature do nothing but harm to the spirit of debate at the heart of a college education and ought to be greeted with the same degree of censure that threatening Bored@Baker posts and other anonymous attacks have received in Hanover. It is our hope that Cornell University treats this episode with the gravity it deserves as it continues to conduct its investigation.

For additional information, please visit The Cornell Review’s blog post here.