The trustees of Cornell University on Friday blamed a small group of students for an incident last month in which the university’s president, Michael Kotlikoff, bumped his vehicle into them after a debate about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The students approached Dr. Kotlikoff after he spoke at a campus discussion on April 30 about free speech and the Middle East conflict. They questioned him about the university’s suspensions of pro-Palestinian students because of their involvement in demonstrations before following him and surrounding his black Cadillac S.U.V.
Video supplied by the students then shows Dr. Kotlikoff reversing the S.U.V. and bumping one student, Hudson Athas, while another, Aiden Vallecillo, screams out that his foot had been run over.
The trustees said that the students’ actions were “inconsistent with university policies governing expressive activity,” but said that the university would not be pursuing disciplinary action against them. The district attorney in Tompkins County, which includes Cornell’s Ithaca, N.Y., campus, declined to bring criminal charges against anyone involved, the statement added.
The statement from the trustees did not directly address Dr. Kotlikoff’s actions, but effectively absolved him of blame for the incident. The trustees expressed support for his ability to “lead with integrity” and praised him as showing “a steadfast commitment to Cornell’s values and principles.”
A university spokeswoman declined to comment.
In a statement, the students involved in the incident criticized the investigation as biased and called for a “public meeting” with Dr. Kotlikoff to discuss free speech issues at Cornell. They accused Dr. Kotlikoff of trying to “disparage” them, and they said had not been contacted by the trustees “or any independent investigator.”
Even as the protests that swept American universities over the Israel-Hamas war have largely faded, the institutional memory of the unrest lingers.
At Cornell, some student groups had criticized the university for adopting policies that they said had led to a harsh crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters. The university had said its policies were intended to counteract “harassment, intimidation, shutting down events and threats of violence.”
Like many universities in the United States, Cornell erupted with student protests in the spring of 2024 over the Israel-Hamas war. And since October 2023, when that war began, the university had issued more than 80 disciplinary actions, including suspensions, against students that it said had infringed on “the rights of others.”
The suspended students include the leader of the campus encampments movement, Momodou Taal, a Ph.D. student in Africana studies whom the Trump administration sought to deport. Immigration officials had taken similar action against students at other universities whom they had accused of antisemitism.
Dr. Kotlikoff, who was appointed as Cornell’s president in March 2025, had served as interim president. Before that, he was the university’s provost from 2015 to 2024.
On April 30, he delivered the opening remarks at an event billed as a forum for open discussion about the war in Gaza. The event was sponsored by organizations that included pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel student groups and featured Norman Finkelstein, an author and political scientist.
As Dr. Kotlikoff was leaving, a group of students confronted him, asking about the pro-Palestinian student suspensions. He initially engaged in a back-and-forth before waving goodbye and heading to his vehicle.
Multiple videos show the students surrounding Dr. Kotlikoff’s vehicle, which reverses slowly before brushing and stopping in front of Mr. Athas. It then accelerates and bumps Mr. Athas, causing him to stumble back, while Mr. Vallecillo yells that his foot was run over.
In a statement after the incident, Dr. Kotlikoff said that he waited to reverse his car until he saw space behind him and asserted that the students had been banging on the vehicle. The students denied that, and videos did not show them doing so.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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