Cornell trustees appoint Sally Yates to review sexual misconduct response

Yates previously led NWSL inquiry that found systemic abuse

Cornell’s board of trustees announced on Tuesday that Sally Yates, a former deputy attorney general in the Obama administration, will lead an independent review of how the university handles sexual misconduct complaints. The appointment comes amid an outpouring of anger over allegations of a 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.

The review is to include how the Ivy League university investigates reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary process works, the adequacy of campus police responses, and the oversight of fraternities, sororities and other campus groups, the trustees said. Yates will also look at how a specific complaint was handled and at the oversight of Greek organizations, Cornell said.

“It is imperative that Cornell be willing to examine itself with the same rigor we expect of others,” the trustee chair, Anne Meinig Smalling, said in a statement.

The announcement follows days of public outrage and a large demonstration at Cornell over the university’s response to a complaint from a woman known publicly only as Jane Doe. She told campus police in November 2024 that she had been sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi fraternity brothers the month before, after being pressured into drinking and taking drugs. No criminal charges have been filed.

Cornell has shut down the Chi Phi chapter at the university and said it expelled some students and suspended others. The woman sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity and others last month. Lawyers for two of the former students denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by the Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives were unsuccessful. Court records show that during an investigation Cornell conducted under the federal Title IX law, some of the accused students contended that the sexual activity was consensual.

The lawsuit put a new, nationwide spotlight on the allegations and how the campus police, university and local prosecutor had reacted. New York’s attorney general is conducting a criminal investigation, and Governor Hochul called for an independent review of Cornell’s handling of the matter — the review that Yates will lead.

Cornell students, professors and others thronged a campus plaza on Monday to protest the university’s response and demand more accountability, greater transparency, an overhaul of the disciplinary process and other changes.

Yates had a decades-long career at the Justice Department, serving for years as the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta and later as a deputy attorney general. She achieved particular prominence in January 2017, when, as acting attorney general in the early days of the Trump administration, she directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend the constitutionality of Donald Trump’s refugee and immigration ban. She was swiftly fired, with Trump accusing her of betrayal and insubordination.

Yates also generated headlines when it emerged that, in a conversation days before her departure, she had expressed alarm to the Trump White House about contacts that Trump’s new national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period. Flynn later was fired.

Yates has been in private practice since her departure from the Justice Department. Her practice at the King & Spalding law firm includes conducting independent investigations for outside organizations and companies. She led a high-profile inquiry into alleged abuse and misconduct, including claims of harassment and coercion, at the National Women’s Soccer League. The investigation concluded in 2022 with a finding of systemic abuse.