Cornell Faculty Senate Votes No Confidence in University Leadership Over Handling of Assault Lawsuit

On Friday afternoon, an email went out to the members of Cornell University's faculty senate with a tally: 75 in favor, 50 opposed, five abstaining and five not voting. The resolution it reported declared no confidence in the university's top leadership, and it landed in the middle of a campus still unsettled by a former student's lawsuit.

That lawsuit was filed in mid-September. The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as Jane Doe, is suing Cornell 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, saying either that the sex was consensual or that they were not involved.

The criminal side of the case has shifted. The local district attorney initially concluded 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, for its part, disciplined several of the accused students after an investigation that ran for months. President Michael Kotlikoff also convened a task force on sexual misconduct, which has released certain recommendations.

For some professors, that was not enough. Weeks of debate preceded the vote, centered on whether Kotlikoff and other administrators handled the allegations properly and have done enough to curb sexual misconduct at the Ithaca, N.Y., university. Critics have faulted the president for not acting more forcefully to strengthen the disciplinary process, push for criminal investigations and change campus party culture.

The resolution has no binding force. The faculty senate cannot remove or direct the university's leaders, and the resolution did not call for Kotlikoff to resign. Its backers said they hoped it would pressure the Board of Trustees to address what they described as longstanding institutional failures.

Kotlikoff made his case to senators on the first day of debate. He pledged to make Cornell a leader in addressing sexual assault and asked for more time. Replacing him, he argued, 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 suggestion that he had been indifferent to the woman's case, though he conceded he had only recently learned that she had left Cornell.

Some professors had urged colleagues to hold off until an independent investigation by Sally Yates, the former U.S. deputy attorney general, is released. Cornell hired her to examine its initial response to the 2024 rape report and its broader procedures for handling similar complaints. The senate voted without waiting for it.

Board chair Anne Smalling said in a statement that the vote reflects the deep anger across campus and sends a clear signal that what happened to the woman was unacceptable. She added that Kotlikoff and his administration were the right leaders to address the issue thoughtfully and comprehensively. Thomas Giuffra, the woman's attorney, said he hoped the vote would be another step toward educating and supporting the Cornell community by confronting what he called the longstanding scourge of sexual assault on campus.

Yasmeen Masoud, an undergraduate, spoke at a news conference organized by the resolution's sponsors and called the vote encouraging. Students, she said, should not have to beg for answers, demand basic transparency or generate media attention just to have their concerns acknowledged.

What comes next sits largely outside the senate's hands: the Yates report, the attorney general's renewed review, and whether the trustees act on a message they have so far answered by backing the president.