The Cornell University faculty member who said, roughly a week after Oct. 7, that Hamas’s attack “exhilarated” him is back teaching.
The university said Russell Rickford, an associate history professor, went on voluntary leave for the remainder of the past academic year amid local and national condemnation of his comments. But he’s now listed on Cornell’s website as teaching three history courses this fall, including a Professional Development Seminar.
Cornell didn’t provide interviews or respond to questions Monday about Rickford’s return. “Consistent with well-established principles of academic freedom, Cornell has a process for considering whether public statements such as those expressed off campus by Professor Rickford at a political rally fall under the category of protected speech, or rather demonstrate prohibited bias, discrimination or harassment,” Joel M. Malina, vice president for university relations, said in a statement.
“Given that Professor Rickford’s comments were made as a private citizen in his free time, the university’s academic leadership has concluded that Professor Rickford’s conduct in relation to this incident did not meet that high bar,” Malina said. The university didn’t explain whom this “academic leadership” was. Malina said, “Rickford made a horrific comment.”
What he said, according to The Cornell Daily Sun student newspaper’s video of an Oct. 15 off-campus student rally, was that “in those first few hours—even as horrific acts were being carried out, many of which we would not learn about until later—there are many Gazans of goodwill, many Palestinians of conscience, who abhor violence, as do you, as do I, who abhor the targeting of civilians, as do you, as do I, who were able to breathe!”
“For the first time in years! It was exhilarating,” Rickford added in the video. Conservative social media accounts with significant followings, including the X profile of Libs of TikTok, shared shortened versions of Rickford’s comments online.
In a joint Oct. 17 statement, Cornell’s then-president Martha E. Pollack and Board of Trustees chair Kraig H. Kayser called Rickford’s use of the word “exhilarating” a “reprehensible comment that demonstrates no regard whatsoever for humanity.”
Rickford apologized in the student newspaper, writing that “some of the language I used was reprehensible and did not reflect my values. As I said in the speech, I abhor violence and the violent targeting of civilians.”
Rickford didn’t respond to Inside Higher Ed’s request for comment Monday.
