Michael Kotlikoff, the president of Cornell University, spoke to the New York Times about sexual assault allegations at the school, acknowledging for the first time that he knew a student had reported being sexually assaulted in November 2024, but did not follow up with the Jane Doe involved in the months after learning about the alleged assault.
He also revealed that he did not know she had dropped out of Cornell until she filed a lawsuit last month.
Kotlikoff addressed his administration’s handling of the 2024 allegations as the university faces mounting scrutiny and calls for his resignation.
“The fact that Jane Doe experienced what she experienced at Cornell is something that I am personally sorry for,” Kotlikoff said in the interview, his first since the woman filed her civil lawsuit last month. “And I think this entire campus is sorry that occurred.”
“I’ve heard enough from the community that there is a loss of trust,” he added. “People are angry. I understand that anger.”
Last month, a former student, identified in court documents by the pseudonym “Jane Doe”, filed a civil lawsuit against multiple parties, including the university, accusing seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity of sexually assaulting her at a party at their fraternity house on campus in October 2024. All of the men named in the lawsuit have denied wrongdoing, and none have been criminally charged.
The woman reported the incident to the Cornell University police department in November of 2024. According to records obtained by the New York Times, after an internal investigation at Cornell, two of the men were expelled, two were suspended, and another, who had already graduated, was barred from campus. The remaining men received lighter punishments, which included an order to not contact Jane Doe, and to write “reflection papers”.
At the time, the Tompkins county district attorney declined to bring charges against the men, saying that there was not sufficient evidence.
The district attorney has since said that he would reopen his office’s investigation, and Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, said she was appointing Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, as special prosecutor to investigate the claims.
Kotlikoff called the allegations “deeply disturbing” in a statement earlier this month, and said he welcomed Hochul’s decision to appoint James to the case.
During the 90-minute interview, he was asked to respond to the criticisms that his administration had failed to respond to the former student’s allegations until she filed a lawsuit.
Kotlikoff pointed to a presidential taskforce that was established to examine sexual assault on campus.
He added, “I do think it’s important to understand we have more information now than we had at that time. We’ve learned some more information that has come out around how this process unfolded.”
Cornell’s faculty senate is expected to hold a rare vote of no confidence in the president later this month, according to reports.
In the interview, Kotlikoff also said that he had not been aware that the former student had left the school.
“I do think there’s an argument for what you said, which is that if in fact a student has withdrawn because she feels unsafe at the outcome of the” university’s administrative review process “or there’s specific concerns around individuals – you know that there were no-contact orders for those individuals – I think that’s something that leadership should be made aware of. I would agree with that.”
On Tuesday, after the interview, Kotlikoff announced that Cornell would suspend parties at fraternity houses for the remainder of the academic year. The university also said it plans to add experienced sexual assault investigators to work with its police force in response.
A newly formed special committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees also announced that it had retained Sally Yates, who was a deputy attorney general in the Obama administration, to “lead a comprehensive independent review of how the university prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault and related misconduct on campus”.
