Cornell Faculty Senate Votes No Confidence in Leadership Over Handling of Alleged Campus Rape

On Friday afternoon, an email went out to the members of Cornell University's Faculty Senate with the result of a vote that had been weeks in the making. The senate had approved a resolution declaring "no confidence" in the school's top leaders, 75 to 50. Five senators abstained and five others did not vote.

The resolution is symbolic. The faculty body has no authority over the university's president or other administrators. Its backers said they hoped the vote would pressure Cornell's board of trustees to address what they described as longstanding institutional failures. The resolution did not call for President Michael Kotlikoff to resign.

The vote follows a lawsuit filed in mid-September by a former student, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, against the university and seven former members of the Chi Phi fraternity. She says she was given ketamine and gang raped at the fraternity house in October 2024. All of the men have denied the allegations. Some say the sex was consensual, and others say they were not involved. The local district attorney first concluded that the woman had consented and that no crime had been committed. That investigation has since been reopened and handed to New York's attorney general.

Cornell's own Title IX investigation ran for months and ended in discipline for several of the accused. According to records obtained by The New York Times, two were expelled, two were suspended and placed on probation, and two were required to write "reflection" papers and complete bystander training. A seventh man had already graduated and was barred from campus. Kotlikoff also convened a task force on sexual misconduct, which released certain recommendations. Some faculty say he has not gone far enough in strengthening the disciplinary process, pushing for criminal investigations or changing campus party culture.

Paul Ortiz, a labor history professor and co-sponsor of the resolution, said last week that hundreds of students, staff, alumni and faculty had approached the sponsors. Their message, he said, was that the Jane Doe case is "but a tip of the iceberg," and that a "veritable fortress of silence" around sexual violence had been breached since the resolution was introduced.

On the first day of debate, Kotlikoff addressed the senators directly. He pledged to make Cornell a leader on sexual assault and asked for more time. He argued that replacing him would do little to solve complex problems and could harm the university's reputation. He acknowledged that he had not read the campus police report, saying university policy bars top administrators from interfering in criminal investigations. He rejected the idea that he had been indifferent to her case, though he said he had only recently learned that she had left Cornell. He also said the university must determine whether fraternities can operate safely, and left open the possibility of sweeping restrictions on Greek life, arguing that such decisions should rest on research and evidence rather than emotion.

The board of trustees responded Friday. It said the vote reflected deep anger on campus and sent a "clear signal that what happened to Jane Doe is unacceptable," but maintained that Kotlikoff and his administration were the right leaders to address the problem thoughtfully and comprehensively. Board chair Anne Smalling said the board fully supports him and pointed to expanded sexual assault prevention education, additional victim advocates and more staff in the Office of Civil Rights. Thomas Giuffra, Jane Doe's attorney, said he hoped the vote would be another step toward educating and supporting the Cornell community and addressing what he called the longstanding scourge of sexual assault on campus.

Some professors had urged colleagues to wait for an independent investigation by Sally Yates, the former U.S. Deputy Attorney General, whom Cornell hired to examine both its response to the woman's 2024 report and its broader procedures for handling similar complaints. That report, along with the attorney general's reopened inquiry, is what to watch next.