ITHACA, N.Y. — Momodou Taal, an international student at Cornell University who faced deportation after being temporarily suspended for participating in a pro-Palestinian protest on the university’s campus Sept. 18, was informed by interim Provost John Siliciano Thursday that he would not be suspended and would remain enrolled in courses. This decision secures Taal’s F-1 visa status, allowing him to stay in the country.
Taal is prohibited from entering Cornell’s campus as part of the decision. Taal is able to remotely access faculty advice and library resources in order to complete his dissertation — the last of his coursework to earn a doctorate in Africana Studies.
Eric Lee, Taal’s Michigan-based immigration lawyer, said Thursday that Siciliano’s ruling promises Taal due process, or a hearing, regarding remaining restrictions like his ability to be on campus.
“No matter what happens, the result is not going to be disenrollment, which would trigger the immigration consequences,” Lee said. “He’s allowed to continue doing his dissertation work.”
Cornell’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards notified Taal, a United Kingdom citizen, of his temporary suspension on Sept. 23, citing his documented participation in a demonstration where protesters demanded the university cut financial and professional ties with weapons manufacturers supplying Israel in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Over 100 students and faculty were involved and unlawfully entered the Statler Hotel on campus to shut down a career fair where representatives from Boeing and L3Harris were recruiting.
Protestors pushed past a blockade of university police officers to enter the hotel. As a result, Taal and 19 other participants were referred to the university’s conduct office, according to a statement from Cornell’s communications office sent to The Ithaca Voice on Thursday.
No media outlets or demonstration participants have released video or photo evidence of Taal interacting with law enforcement during the demonstration.
Per Cornell’s Code of Student Conduct, Taal was able to appeal the conduct office’s decision in written statements he and Lee submitted to administrators.
The first appeal, which the two submitted to the university’s Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi on Sept. 25. Taal said Lombardi rejected it the following day. This led to a wave of social media posts and statements from organizations at Cornell and around the country condemning the decision.
Taal and Lee submitted a second appeal to Siciliano, who issued his ruling Thursday. The Ithaca Voice has reviewed the letter Siliciano sent to Taal, where he wrote that charges against Taal “do not relate to the expression of [his] views” but rather are a result of his “actions as part of a collective and purposeful effort to shut down a student job fair.”
“[Taal’s] expressive rights were vigorously and freely exercised outside of Day Hall and the Statler Hotel,” Siciliano wrote. “This effort — which involved physical shoving of police officers, disregard of lawful instructions, […] intimidation of students and recruiters at the job fair and the premature end of an event of critical importance to some students’ futures — went well beyond the bounds.”
Taal will be allowed a hearing where, Siliciano wrote, he will have a “full opportunity to argue.”
Over 10,000 people from the Cornell community and nationally have signed a petition, posted the day after Lombardi rejected Taal’s appeal, as of Oct. 10 demanding his reinstatement.
Lee, Taal’s immigration lawyer, posted a statement on his X account, formerly Twitter, the day after the first appeal was rejected. Lee wrote that Cornell’s threats to report the news of Taal’s academic suspension to the federal government “violates basic principles of due process and the presumption of innocence, to which all students, including foreign nationals, are entitled.”
Numerous activist organizations, some affiliated with Cornell and others not, have released statements condemning the university for unfairly targeting Taal, who is Black and a practicing Muslim.
Like Lee, organizations including the Cornell chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Black Student Union cited the lack of a hearing or fair trial that all Cornell students, Taal included, are entitled to per the university’s code of conduct in their statements and social media posts.
Taal has been involved in on-campus organizing efforts since the war in the Gaza strip broke out Oct. 7, 2023.
In April, Taal was among the students who were suspended for participating in the pro-Palestinian encampment CML organized and maintained for nearly two weeks on Cornell’s Arts Quad.
Taal was among the leaders of the protest and spoke to the crowd that gathered in front of the university’s administrative building, Day Hall, before the group marched to the Statler Hotel on Sept. 18 to disrupt the career fair.
A day after the protest, Taal received an email from Cornell University Police Department Chief Anthony Bellamy, who notified Taal the department had referred his case to the university’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.
The conduct office notified Taal of his academic suspension on Sept. 23 in an email that Taal said did not mention his F-1 student visa status. Taal learned his visa would be impacted by his suspension during a phone conversation later that day with Cornell’s Senior Immigration Advisor Hersh Sisodia.
The media relations office at Cornell requested this statement be published in full: