On Tuesday, 20 October 2026, the New York Times published a two-page letter that Jane Doe, a pseudonymous former Cornell University student, wrote to faculty leaders. The letter is dated 14 October and was addressed to the faculty senate, which is weighing a rare vote of no confidence in President Michael Kotlikoff's administration. Doe says she felt "unsupported and disbelieved" after a second-hand account reached her of a comment Kotlikoff allegedly made. She describes a January 2025 meeting with the leader of her sorority, Tri Delta, where Kotlikoff reportedly asked why she had waited so long to report the assault. Doe reported the alleged assault to campus police on 8 November 2024, about three weeks after it took place on 19 and 20 October 2024. In the letter she explained her purpose in these words.
“My intention is not to prescribe how the Senate should interpret this account, but rather to provide information that its members may wish to consider or investigate further.”
Cornell disputes that account. A university spokesperson said the second-hand description of Kotlikoff's question is incorrect, and that the university's position rests on a documented first-hand account. In the university's version, the question was directed at bystanders who had not used Cornell's anonymous tip line, despite social media activity about the incident in October 2024. The university also confirmed it had received the letter from Doe's lawyer. Cornell had already opened an internal investigation and a civil rights inquiry under Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination at campuses receiving federal funding. The spokesperson's statement also addressed the president's intent directly.
“He was not questioning Jane Doe's reporting.”
In mid-September 2026 Doe filed a lawsuit against Cornell and seven men, alleging she was drugged and raped at the Chi Phi fraternity in Ithaca, New York, in October 2024. According to the lawsuit, the assault lasted almost seven hours, and the suit accuses the university of negligence in its handling of her case. All seven men have denied wrongdoing, and none has been criminally charged. The BBC reports that the local prosecutor declined to bring charges when Doe first reported the incident, although the case has since reopened. The fraternity is now defunct, and the lawsuit has prompted student protests and renewed scrutiny of Cornell's response to sexual assaults on campus.
Former US Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, now a partner at King & Spalding LLP, has pledged an independent investigation into Cornell's handling of sexual assault allegations, including the 2024 case involving the fraternity. Faculty began debating the no-confidence resolution in the week of 12 October, and the resolution was introduced in light of Doe's lawsuit. The senate will meet again on 28 October before holding an electronic vote. Even if passed, the resolution would not remove Kotlikoff from office, though it would be a formal rebuke of his administration. Doe's letter stressed that it was not meant to tell members how to vote, and the university disputes her account of his comment.
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Jane Doe, who filed a lawsuit in mid-September alleging seven men assaulted her at a Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024, wrote that Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff doubted her account. Cornell calls the second-hand version of his remark incorrect.
AI text based on reports by Bloomberg Business, The Independent, BBC and other publishers. Published .