Cornell disputes former student’s account of president’s response to rape allegation

A former Cornell University student has told faculty senators that hearing about a question attributed to President Michael Kotlikoff left her feeling “unsupported and disbelieved” after she reported an alleged sexual assault. Cornell disputes her account of the question. Her letter comes as senators weigh a motion of no confidence in the administration’s ability to address sexual assault on campus. [1] [4]

The woman, identified as Jane Doe in a civil lawsuit, wrote in a letter dated 14 October that the then-president of her sorority had recounted a conversation with Kotlikoff. According to Doe, the sorority leader said he had asked, roughly, why Doe had waited so long to report the alleged assault, and interpreted the question as doubt about her account. Doe was describing what she had been told, not a remark she heard herself. She reported the alleged assault to campus police on 8 November 2024, about three weeks after she says it happened. [1] [2] [3]

Cornell says the question, asked at a meeting in January 2025, concerned bystanders who had not used its anonymous reporting line, rather than Doe’s decision to report. The university says a documented first-hand account contradicts her description. What Kotlikoff said and whom his question concerned remain disputed. [1] [3]

Doe alleges in her lawsuit that several men sexually assaulted her at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. The seven former fraternity members contacted by CBS News have denied wrongdoing, and none had been charged with a crime as of 20 October. The criminal investigation has been reopened. [1] [3]

The proposed faculty motion goes beyond Doe’s account of one conversation: it concerns confidence in Cornell’s central administration, not Kotlikoff alone. Cornell says it established a campus sexual assault task force in February 2025 and, on 13 October this year, announced a suspension of Interfraternity Council social events and expanded support for people reporting sexual assault. Those steps do not settle the dispute over the January meeting or the faculty’s wider judgment of the administration. [4] [6]

Senators debated the motion on 14 October without voting. Some supported it; others questioned its breadth, according to the Cornell Daily Sun. Further debate is scheduled for 28 October, with an electronic vote to follow. Cornell’s dean of faculty says passage would have no binding consequence. [4] [5] [8]