Cleveland State University President Laura Bloomberg, Ph.D., discussed campus safety following Alec Popivker’s now-dismissed felony charges that stemmed from an extensive police report filed by two CSU students, stating that it’s not her job to “guarantee any one of us 100% safety on a university campus.”
The police report outlined multiple incidents between the two students and Popivker, as well as an alleged incident of sexual harassment by a third CSU student.
In an interview with The Cauldron on Tuesday, Feb. 27, Bloomberg, who was joined by General Counsel Sonali Wilson, talked about the viral video that led to Popivker’s arrest, including on-campus tensions, the importance of context and the contents of the students’ police report.
She also discussed the future of on-campus safety, emphasizing their plans “to be really vigilant,” but also that “it’s not a safe world.”
The video and its missing context
On Monday, Feb. 5, CSU students Rosemarie Awad and Kaia Pesek filed a police report with CSU police after a brief video clip of an incident between them and Popivker, who was behind the camera, went viral on social media.
The original video was posted on TikTok by @alexvinnitza in November and took place on a public sidewalk to the right of the Student Center, where Popivker is known to park, set up pro-Israel demonstrations and engage with students.
The video generated mixed reactions, ranging from outrage regarding the behavior of Awad and Pesek, including demands that they apologize and be held accountable. Others focused on Popivker, who has a thoroughly documented history of provoking and harassing students.
The day after the video began circulating, CSU released a statement on Instagram and X/Twitter stating that CSU PD was investigating the video and that much was to be discovered.
Bloomberg shared that she and the administration felt compelled to release a statement to alleviate tensions and emphasize the possibility of missing context:
“The rush to judgment on 90% of what’s on social media is alarming to me…Context clues told me two things: it wasn’t a recent video, because I hadn’t seen snow on that corner in weeks, and that somebody was recording, and that person wasn’t seen or heard, and I know that that’s a corner where rabbi Alec Popivker parks…I think context matters always,” Bloomberg said. “I think that’s one of the things that we need to help students understand, that if you’re going to be consuming information on social media, you’ve got to be a savvy consumer of it, because when you rush to judgment, you cause harm.”
The immediacy of CSU’s statement involved concern for the safety of the students in the video.
“This video was going viral, and we were worried about the women’s safety,” began Bloomberg. “[The Division of] Student Belonging and Success was reaching out to them to say, ‘what do we need to do to protect you?’…It felt urgent to the administration to do something, to say, ‘stand down people.’”
Sometime between Tuesday, Feb. 27 and Wednesday, Feb. 28, however, the statement was taken down.
The safety of the students
On Tuesday, Feb. 13, CSU police arrested Popivker on felony charges of aggravated menacing and ethnic intimidation directly related to the police report filed by Awad and Pesek. The girls themselves were not investigated at any point.
“To my knowledge, they were not investigated at any time,” said Bloomberg. “The conversations at that point were, I believe, more focused on ‘how do we make sure that we support you?’”
In the girls’ police report, Pesek stated that she, Awad and their families have been doxed and harassed following the video’s virality, which included slander toward Pesek’s father’s business.
Comments on social media toward the girls, which both Bloomberg and Wilson called “horrible,” included:
- “Someone should have politely invited them into the traffic of a bus. Preferably a train, but a bus would work as well.”
- “What are they majoring in? Prostitution.”
- “They look like they walk the streets.”
Bloomberg shared that leaders in the Division of Student Belonging and Success have had regular meetings with them, adding that she cannot guarantee total safety for anybody on campus.
“If I could control what happens on social media, I would,” began Bloomberg. “I can’t independently say they feel completely supported, because one of the things we have to realistically say is that—adults on a campus that is open to the public—I can’t guarantee any one of us 100% safety on a university campus. Not my job. We can do the best we can. We can provide resources, including things like remote learning, as a resource. We don’t force it. People have choices. People are adults.”
Alleged sexual harassment by another CSU student
Awad and Pesek also alleged in their police report that CSU student Joey Falconi provided Popivker their personal information “for the purpose of exposing their identities online to harass them,” following a prior incident at an off-campus fraternity house party on Friday, Feb. 2.
At this party, the girls allegedly encountered Falconi, who was seen “taunting, groping, and attempting to dance with females at the party” throughout the night. He also allegedly cursed at Awad and Pesek, calling Awad a “terrorist” and having “attempted to touch [Awad],” who was then pulled away from Awad as he continued to yell racial slurs toward her.
Bloomberg shared her thoughts on this alleged sexual harassment from Falconi:
“Well, we have conduct codes. Of course, I think it’s a problem when people violate the conduct code, and then there’s the possibility of breaking the law. I’m not going to speak about a specific situation when there’s been an active complaint filed…I think that when we have inappropriate conduct, student-on-student conduct, we need to address it, and in this case, they have also filed a report.”
Wilson also discussed the potential legal implications of someone giving information to another with the intent to cause harm.
“I’m not sure whether that’s actionable or not,” said Wilson. “Certainly he’s doing something in that case that would be intended to harm another, but I don’t know whether there’s enough nexus there for them [CSU PD] to do anything with it.”
The future of campus safety
On Friday, Feb. 23, Popivker’s charges were listed as “nolle” or dismissed, following his first preliminary hearing. This means that he might return to the public space that surrounds campus.
Bloomberg discussed the future of campus safety given this possibility.
“I struggle with the word ‘safe,’” said Bloomberg. “It’s not a safe world. It’s just not. There’s a lot of things that make it not safe. We can try to maximize the level of safety on campus, but people also have their rights and I cannot control that.”
Bloomberg added that while she and the University administration do not have the power to stifle the freedoms of Popivker, they can focus on enforcing his “persona non grata status,” that is, his ban from campus grounds, and being “vigilant” about making the campus community aware of the restrictions that he has.
“If somebody feels unsafe because he is in the city or in proximity to the campus but not violating our codes, my message has got to be, I am sorry that you feel unsafe,” said Bloomberg. “There are options we can put in place to support you, but we cannot change those circumstances.”
Wilson emphasized the fact that CSU is a governmental entity, meaning the University is bound by the law in implementing its policies and taking action. CSU cannot take action against Popivker if his conduct falls within the law, but other conduct is actionable.
“We can’t keep you safe because someone knows that he might be two blocks away or he’s standing on the sidewalk. If he’s somewhere where he can be legally, there’s nothing we can do about that. But if he begins to exhibit behavior, if he’s threatening specific individuals, that’s illegal,” Wilson said. “It’s against our policy and it’s against free speech. Speech cannot be threatening or harassing. And he cannot chase or touch.”
What the University can’t do, according to Wilson, is monitor Popivker’s presence 24/7.
“We don’t have the resources to have someone sitting in front of a camera, watching every camera that we have,” Wilson added.
Bloomberg suggested that students should ignore Popivker’s speech altogether by giving him “a collective deaf ear” as a means of seeing an end to this issue. She also encouraged student groups to host events and conversations to alleviate tension and facilitate dialogue.
She also suggested the community not be overly concerned about Popivker, “when we are in a city that’s the 10th highest crime rate in the country.”
“I am a little perplexed when I think about all of the things that happen around campuses—not this campus, but in general—how this one individual could take up so much real estate in our heads,” said Bloomberg.
Combating hate speech
Wilson emphasized education as a means of countering hate speech, referring students to the University’s free speech website, as well as the latest of CSU’s discussion series titled, “Courageous Conversations,” which was held in October and focussed on free speech.
“The best way to combat hate speech is with other speech, with counter-speech. We’ve had the ‘Courageous Conversations’ because I think students have to learn what is free speech and what are the boundaries…what is protected, what isn’t protected. That’s one of the ways that we can support, is by training and educating, because I think once you begin to understand the differences, then it makes it easier to tolerate.”
That aside, the discussions for solid safety initiatives following Popivker’s dismissed charges are still ongoing and results remain to be seen.
Students and campus members can contact CSU PD at (216) 687-2020 and Cleveland Police at (216) 623-5000.
Diana Schoder