The Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY is split over how to welcome Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul. On one side of the question are organizers, who view the Texas U.S. House Representative as the perfect anti-politician, speaking from the heart no matter his audience. Then there are Cornell’s proponents of the DREAM Act, which Paul opposes on “economic” grounds. They can’t decide how to protest his Thursday visit. Paul is “a documented racist politician,” charges a member of the team in emails obtained by a blog covering Cornell and other Ivy League schools.
The DREAM Team, a Cornell University student-run organization devoted to supporting legislation allowing some undocumented students to obtain in-state college tuition, plans to protest Paul’s visit to the Ithaca campus. In 2012, the group received the James A. Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony. In online discussions, group members April 8 voiced differing ideas how to “take away the aura that college students blindly follow Ron Paul and hopefully encourage our peers not to do the same,” one DREAM Team member said, according to emails obtained by the IvyGate Blog.
While some suggestions for protests included throwing pillows, diplomas — even wearing pajamas — to the event set for Cornell’s Lynah Rink, others urged restraint. “We should not ‘boo’ or throw anything at the stage,” one female member of the group cautioned. “By doing this, we aren’t really promoting interracial understanding very harmoniously.”
But other participants in the Google Group emails said some type of protest is warranted when Paul arrives. “Personally, I feel it is my responsibility to legally protest a documented racist politician that is against birth-right citizenship, welfare and the DREAM Act.”
Paul’s Town Hall meeting at Cornell happens 7-8pm, Thursday. Free tickets are available online.