Faculty members call campus sexual misconduct a systemic problem

Recordings obtained by BBC News show Cornell staff members saying they were “deeply disturbed” by President Michael Kotlikoff’s handling of Jane Doe’s allegation of an October 2024 assault at a Chi Phi fraternity party. In the same recordings, staff accused him of lacking an “emotional response.”

The comments came at Wednesday’s faculty senate meeting, where Cornell’s faculty debated the university’s handling of sexual assault cases. The faculty senate, a governing body composed of professors and other academic staff, scheduled a rare no-confidence vote on Kotlikoff’s leadership for 28 October.

Kotlikoff, who has led Cornell for 26 years, was grilled by the faculty senate. Cornell is an Ivy League institution based in Ithaca, in upstate New York. Kotlikoff said, “We are all extraordinarily upset by the events at Cornell in October of 2024,” and highlighted changes Cornell introduced after Doe’s allegations, including banning fraternity parties.

Faculty said in the recordings that sexual misconduct on campus was a systemic problem that demanded “systemic attention.”

Paul Ortiz, a labour history professor who sponsored the no-confidence resolution, said students had told faculty they “feel unsafe walking to the library after dark.” Ortiz accused Cornell of treating rape more as a PR problem than as a heinous crime.

Doe’s two-page letter, dated 14 October and obtained by BBC News, was addressed to faculty ahead of the vote. The former Cornell student, known anonymously as Jane Doe, said she felt “unsupported and disbelieved” by Kotlikoff after she reported the alleged rape and received a “second-hand account” of his reaction. She wrote that his “initial response” was “along the lines of, ‘Why did she wait so long to report it?’” Her letter accused him of asking why she waited several weeks to report the incident.

Doe filed her lawsuit last month alleging she was raped by several men at the October 2024 Chi Phi party. According to Doe, Kotlikoff had a conversation with the then-president of her sorority, with other staff members present, and at least one staff member “appeared distressed” by his question. She wrote: “It diminished my confidence in the administration’s ability to approach my experience with the understanding, sensitivity, and fairness I had hoped for and expected from what had been my dream school.” She said she wrote the letter so faculty “can make an informed choice” ahead of the 28 October vote.

Cornell confirmed receipt of the letter from Doe’s lawyer. A Cornell spokesperson said: “The second-hand account of the question asked by President Kotlikoff in a January 2025 meeting in the letter is incorrect, based on a documented first-hand account.” The spokesperson said Kotlikoff’s question about the delay in reporting the alleged rape “was directed at bystanders who did not use Cornell’s anonymous tip line, despite ongoing social media activity about the incident in October 2024.” The spokesperson added: “He was not questioning Jane Doe’s reporting.”

Doe reported the alleged assault to campus police on 8 November, about three weeks after the fraternity party. The local prosecutor declined to bring charges at the time, but the case has since reopened. All seven former fraternity members accused by Doe denied wrongdoing when contacted by CBS, the BBC’s US partner, and none has been charged with a crime.

Responding to Doe’s initial allegation, Cornell said it had opened an internal investigation and a civil rights inquiry.

Related BBC News material included an article titled “What we know about Cornell University frat house rape investigation,” published on 5 October.

A BBC News video item featured “I am Jane Doe” protests across the United States calling for an end to sexual violence.

Another BBC News item showed college students reacting to the Cornell University rape investigation. One displayed reaction was: “I’m very shocked.”

BBC News characterized the Cornell case as highlighting what it called a “draining” maze for victims to report campus sexual assaults.

BBC News credited Pratiksha Ghildial with additional reporting.