After Jacob Berman '25 was served a three-year no-trespass order in connection to the Sept. 18 career fair shutdown, he requested an exemption to attend Cornell's chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace's weekly Shabbat services from the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. This request was denied.
JVP, which Berman serves as the vice president of, is an anti-Zionist Jewish student organization that stands with Palestinian liberation. Following Berman's suspension, JVP moved many of its activities including Shabbat off campus, allowing Berman to continue to assist in event organizing and leading services.
Attendance at off-campus events including Shabbat services has been higher than when they operated on campus, according to Berman.
Pro-Palestinian student organizations have adjusted operations following administrative punishments to individuals involved in the Sept. 18 career fair shutdown, where protesters shoved past police officers.
Organizations shifted focus on advocating for the suspended students, while continuing their previous actions, including fighting for divestment.
15 students have been suspended with five banned from campus altogether for several years, according to an Oct. 28 statement from Cornell's chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America.
Some of the students who have been banned from campus for three years include Atakan Deviren '27, the former co-chair of YDSA, as well as Berman.
Deviren was one of three students who appeared in court on Nov. 6 over arrests relating to the career fair disruption. While the two other students pleaded not guilty, and were later de-enrolled, according to an Instagram post by the Coalition for Mutual Liberation on Friday, Deviren's case was dismissed on a technicality.
YDSA has continued holding many events on campus, including educational meetings regarding pro-Palestine activism and an anti-fascism rally on Ho Plaza and the Ithaca Commons. They have also been holding phone banks, encouraging the Cornell community to pressure administrators to revert the student suspensions.
YDSA leadership declined several requests for an interview with The Sun.
JVP is focusing on planning more off-campus events, including potential future collaborations with the local organization Ithaca Committee for Justice in Palestine. They are trying to balance this with on-campus events that are more accessible for students living there.
JVP is also seeking to create a new student organization called Chavurah, which is meant to be a non-Zionist Jewish space for religious and cultural practice.
Under the guidance of faculty advisor Prof. Dan Hirschman, sociology, JVP has been working with the Cornell Jewish Alliance for Justice -- a small, informal group of Jewish faculty who are working "parallel to their efforts," Hirschman said.
As a whole, YDSA, JVP and CML have been focusing efforts on helping the suspended students, mainly through phone banks. CML has pushed for the community to continue pressuring the administration to overturn the suspensions and provide amnesty from eviction through phone calls, emails and petitions after the de-enrollments of two students.
Berman says he has been going through the regular appeal process through the University, as well as the alternate resolution process, but says that he "feels like the administration is trying to stonewall this process" by not replying to his emails.
Despite his lack of personal progress, Berman believes that the Cornell community's efforts to protest the persona non grata orders will be successful.
"It's not a precedent to ban students for peaceful protest for three years," Berman said. "I think everyone knows -- even the administration knows -- that these are draconian measures."
Angelina Tang '28 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].