Woke Cornell student's claim that president reversed over his foot during Palestine protest backfires in spectacular fashion

By EMMA RICHTER, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Published: 22:05, 4 June 2026 | Updated: 22:28, 4 June 2026 A Cornell student who claimed the president of the Ivy League ran his foot over during a pro-Palestine protest has been banned from the campus.  Aiden Vallecillo, 22, was told he cannot set foot on the New York campus for a year, just five days after he walked across the stage and received his diploma, he said.  The order, which Vallecillo said was delivered by university police, was a persona non grata that prohibits him from all campus property over the next year, WBNG reported. 'I think that they deliberately timed this to be at a point where students are off campus, where people are thinking about recent graduation, about post-grad plans and not about kind of how to support their fellow students,' he told the outlet.  Vallecillo added: 'They’ve done it at a time when national media attention has also died off.'  The recent graduate sparked tension across campus on April 30 after he and other students followed University President Michael Kotlikoff to his car after attending an Israel-Palestine debate at the school.  At the time, Vallecillo, who was a member of the Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC), said that he and three other members of the student-run group had not expected Kotlikoff to attend the debate. A clip of the moment showed Kotlikoff backing out of a parking spot while the now-banned alum, stood behind his car and shouted 'You just rolled over my f***ing foot, oh my God.' Aiden Vallecillo, 22, has been banned from Cornell University for a year after he accused the school's president of running his foot over during a pro-Palestine protest in April  A clip of the moment showed Kotlikoff backing out of a parking spot while the now-banned alum, stood behind his car Meanwhile, Kotlikoff claimed he waited until there was space behind him before 'slowly maneuvering' out of the parking lot.  The event featured author and political scientist Norman Finkelstein. Kotlikoff gave an opening statement as well.  Vallecillo previously told the Cornell Sun that he and the others had 'decided to converse with Kotlikoff after Finkelstein,' and that the president encouraged the proliferation of free speech on campus.'  He said they were objecting to the university's suspension of student demonstrators and measures they said stifle free speech on campus. But in an email to students the following day, the university president alleged that students and non-students 'loudly shouted' questions at him and refused to stop recording. The students have refuted that claim. 'We weren't shouting at him - it was mostly one person who was talking with him and just trying to have a conversation,' junior Hudson Athas told the outlet.  'I feel that he violated his own proclaimed philosophy of free and open discussion and I don't believe it was anything that could remotely be classified as harassment.' In the footage, which was posted by the student group, Kotlikoff could be seen accusing the group's president, Sophia Arnold, of having an 'agenda.' When he then approached his car, the university president said 'good night' to the students and got in his black Cadillac SUV, which the students described as a 'nice car', as they continued to try to speak with him about university policy. Video footage released by the university then showed a group of students gathered behind the car, but nobody could be seen touching the vehicle despite Kotlikoff's assertion that the group of students banged on the windows, blocked his path and shouted. But the footage released by the university showed just 15 seconds had passed between Kotlikoff entering his vehicle and backing out of the parking spot into Athas, who had just asked: 'Am I allowed to stand here?' He was then accused of allegedly running over Vallecillo's right foot and driving away without saying anything to the student activists while Vallecillo yelled.  In his email to students, Kotlikoff described those involved as both students and non-students who 'are known to Cornell for their past conduct' and have 'a long history of ongoing verbal and online abuse' toward members of Cornell's administration and staff, as well as 'disruptive protest.' Vallecillo said that characterization was a 'deliberate lie,' arguing that the four SDC members involved have 'no prior conduct record.' Kotlikoff claimed he waited until there was space behind him before 'slowly maneuvering' out of the parking lot In a separate statement shared on May 15, Kotlikoff said in part: 'Speech only carries meaning when one can speak and another can listen.  'In a community and in a democracy, any exercise of that freedom carries the responsibility to respect the same rights for others. That is why we have policies and guidelines around free expression at Cornell: to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected and that no one can shout-down or silence other views. I will continue to defend those policies with every means at my disposal.'  Cornell University is one of several schools that have seen a surge in student activism amid the ongoing tensions between Israel and Palestine.  The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.