Cornell University officials canceled the school’s regular class schedule on Friday after federal authorities charged an engineering student for allegedly promoting the murder of Jewish students at the upstate New York Ivy League campus last week.
A spokesperson from the university told The Daily Wire that students, faculty, and staff would instead observe a “community day.”
“No classes will be held, and faculty and staff will be excused from work, except for employees who provide essential services,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We hope that everyone will use this restorative time to take care of yourselves and reflect on how we can nurture the kind of caring, mutually supportive community that we all value.”
Jewish students on the university’s campus in Ithaca, New York, were put on high alert on Sunday night after at least six screenshots allegedly taken from the Greek Rank website displayed online threats from anonymous users who said “‘israel’ deserved 10/7” and “eliminate jewish living from cornell campus” to another user who claimed they would “shoot up 104 west.”
Within 48 hours, a Joint Terrorism Task Force identified Patrick Dai, a junior student enrolled in the prestigious Cornell School of Engineering, as the suspect.
Dai, 21, originally from Pittsford, New York, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Tuesday, charging him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York.
The complaint against Dai alleges he posted threatening messages to the Cornell section of an online discussion site, which included calling for the deaths of Jewish people and carrying out a mass shooting of the 104 West building, which is a Cornell University dining hall that caters predominantly to Kosher diets, located next to the Cornell Jewish Center.
“In another post, Dai allegedly threatened to ‘stab’ and ‘slit the throat’ of any Jewish males he sees on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish females, and to behead any Jewish babies,” authorities said in a news release. “In that same post, Dai threatened to ‘bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.'”
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Dai faces a maximum term of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release of up to three years if convicted.
NBC News reported that Dai did not enter a plea on Wednesday when he appeared in federal court. Authorities assigned him a federal public defender and scheduled a preliminary hearing for November 15.
Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack denounced the “vile antisemitic posts” against the university’s Jewish community in a statement on Wednesday.
“The past two and a half days have been difficult ones for our university,” Pollack wrote. “In addition to the vile antisemitic posts that threatened our Jewish community on Sunday, today we had a concerning crime alert. Even though it was unsubstantiated, it adds to the stress we are all feeling. Cornell Police continue to have an increased presence on campus, and especially in high-priority areas.”
Threats against Jewish communities in the U.S. continue to rise after the Israel-Hamas war entered its fourth week over the weekend, which has sparked a wave of anti-Semitism from supporters of Hamas.
Preliminary data reported by the Anti-Defamation League last Tuesday showed incidents of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism, and assault increased by nearly 400% since Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,400 people on October 7.