Cornell University's Faculty Senate on Friday passed a resolution declaring no confidence in the central administration's ability to address sexual assault on campus, a rebuke spurred by a former student's lawsuit alleging she was drugged and gang-raped at a fraternity house in 2024.
The measure carried 75 to 50, with five senators abstaining and five not casting ballots. Senators voted electronically over more than a week before the tally was released.
The resolution has no binding force. It does not seek the resignation of President Michael Kotlikoff or anyone else, and the board of trustees, the only body that can replace him, signaled it has no plans to make changes.
Board chair Anne Meinig Smalling said the vote reflected deep anger on campus and made plain that what happened to the woman, known in court papers as Jane Doe, was unacceptable. She also said trustees remain confident in Kotlikoff and his team, citing more civil rights staff, additional victim advocates and expanded prevention education.
Under university rules, Kotlikoff has 30 days to respond to the vote in writing, a spokesperson said.
The criminal investigation
The lawsuit, filed in September against Cornell and seven former members of the Chi Phi fraternity, says the woman was given ketamine and assaulted over Oct. 19 and 20, 2024. She told police the encounter started as a consensual threesome before turning into unwanted sex. All seven men deny the allegations, saying the sex was consensual or that they took no part.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to file charges in November 2024. Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul assigned the case to state Attorney General Letitia James and accused police and prosecutors of failing the woman, saying, based on new reports, that her certainty she had been raped was left out of the account campus police gave prosecutors.
Yet, shockingly, those words never made it into the account that the Cornell police sent to prosecutors.
Kathy Hochul, governor of New York
James on Wednesday tapped former federal prosecutor Jacqueline Kelly to run the inquiry. Some defendants want James removed, arguing that her social media posts supporting Jane Doe show bias. James has said the posts expressed empathy and that her office can conduct an impartial, fact-based review.
Lawyers for fraternity member Gillio Lopes brought an Article 78 petition in Sullivan County, and four co-defendants, including Winston Lee, signed on Thursday. Lee's attorney has also asked Tompkins County Supreme Court to keep James out of any grand jury proceeding, with a ruling expected Nov. 13.
Cornell's own Title IX process ended with two of the accused expelled and two suspended and put on probation. Two more were ordered to write reflection papers and undergo bystander training, while the seventh, who had finished his studies, is banned from campus.
A divided faculty
The resolution's lead sponsor, labor history professor Paul Ortiz, said scores of students, alumni, staff and faculty told organizers the Jane Doe case was only the most visible example of a wider problem. He plans an oral history project collecting survivors' accounts. Co-sponsor Iris Packman said the vote would launch a broader campaign for reform.
Dean of Faculty Chris Schaffer opposed the measure, arguing it never spelled out what specifically had failed or what outcome it wanted. Other professors preferred to wait for an outside review by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, whom the university hired, but a motion to delay the vote failed on Oct. 28.
During the debate, Kotlikoff, president since March of last year, asked senators for more time and warned that ousting him would not fix such entrenched issues and might hurt the school's standing. He said school policy keeps senior leaders out of criminal investigations, which is why he never reviewed the police file, and conceded he learned only recently that the woman had withdrawn from Cornell.
