ITHACA: Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff faced off with angry members of the school’s faculty Wednesday at a meeting that underscored deep frustration on campus over his administration’s handling of a woman’s report that she was gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024.
Kotlikoff addressed members of the university’s Faculty Senate, and took their questions, as it began considering a no-confidence resolution in his administration.
The meeting was closed to the media, but in an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press, Kotlikoff repeatedly asked for more time to implement reforms and push for cultural changes in student social life.
He insisted that experienced leadership was necessary to confront problems “that are not simplistic, they’re not easy, they can’t be brushed aside with a wave of a hand.”
“I also think that if this university feels that they will solve this problem by replacing a president, that itself is is not good for Cornell’s reputation because I don’t think it’s the right way to address situations like this,” he said.
Kotlikoff also left open the possibility of sweeping restrictions on Greek life, saying Cornell needed to determine whether fraternities that are now a centerpiece of student socializing could operate safely. On Tuesday, Kotlikoff announced a ban on fraternity parties through the end of the academic year and plans to give state police a role in investigating sexual assault reports.
“If, at the end of the day, fraternities cannot exist in a safe environment and we can’t be convinced that they can be safe, then we should make that decision,” he said, adding that the university should rely on research and evidence rather than emotion.
Kotlikoff left the meeting after answering questions and did not stay for the debate over the no-confidence resolution.
After he departed, a string of faculty members said they had lost confidence in the administration’s ability to effectively combat the problem of sexual assault on campus.
“The faculty were extremely angry. They gave him a hard time, I think appropriately so,” Richard Bensel, a professor of government, said after leaving the meeting.
Some Faculty Senate members who spoke, however, urged colleagues not to be hasty, or said that passing a no-confidence vote now would do little to address the underlying problems.
Debate was expected to continue Oct. 28, followed by electronic voting.
A no-confidence vote by the faculty would be largely symbolic, but could send a powerful message to the university’s trustees, who ultimately decide how the university is run and who leads it.
Kotlikoff declined to speak to reporters after leaving the meeting.
Accuser’s lawsuit has roiled campus
A woman identified in court documents by the pseudonym Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month alleging that seven Chi Phi fraternity members sexually assaulted or exploited her in October 2024 and that Cornell mishandled her complaints.
All of those men have denied her allegations, saying either that their interactions with the woman were consensual or that they weren’t involved.
The criminal investigation by Cornell’s police department quickly stalled after the local district attorney decided, only weeks after the woman went to police in 2024, that no crime had been committed.
At the time, Kotlikoff publicly addressed what he called “deeply disturbing” allegations, suspended the fraternity and said criminal and university investigations were underway. He subsequently convened a presidential task force to examine how Cornell handles sexual assault.
But in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, Kotlikoff said he never followed up to learn what had happened to the woman or the criminal investigation.
Asked by a faculty member whether it was true that he hadn’t read the Cornell Police Department report on the woman’s allegations, Kotlikoff acknowledged that he had not, but not because he didn’t care.
The police investigation was confidential, he said, and university policy is that top administrators shouldn’t have a role in the criminal side of the investigation.
“I really reject the idea that I had no interest in it or was not concerned about it.”
Kotlikoff denied that he wasn’t aware that students had been expelled or suspended as a result of the university’s Title IX investigation, but he acknowledged that, until recently, he didn’t know the woman had dropped out of Cornell.
Faculty describe ‘contentious’ meeting
“The institution is split in significant ways,” said Grant Farred, professor of Africana Studies and English, describing those in the humanities as feeling they had enough information to proceed while those in the sciences wanted more data.
Iris Packman, a senior research and policy development associate at Cornell’s ILR School Climate Jobs Institute, said after leaving that she felt Kotlikoff got “defensive.”
Labor history professor Paul Ortiz, lead sponsor of the no-confidence resolution, said the debate was animated by the perception that the administration wasn’t doing enough to address “a perpetual ongoing crisis.”
Anne Marie Brady, a senior extension associate at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said she welcomed Kotlikoff’s recent announcement that state police would take on a role in campus sexual assault investigations, but she questioned the timing, a day before the Senate debate.
Professor who reported harassment says it nearly cost her career
For Ariana Kim, an associate music professor at Cornell, Kotlikoff’s acknowledgment that he had not followed up on the woman’s case was “appalling.”
A Grammy-nominated violinist, Kim told The Associated Press that when she first started at Cornell a decade ago in her 20s, she experienced bullying and sexual harassment by senior colleagues. Cornell, she said, failed to properly document her complaints and never clearly informed her of what disciplinary action, if any, had been taken.
“I was asked what I had done to provoke the situation,” she said.
Kim said her efforts to avoid colleagues who had harassed her later became a point of criticism during her tenure review. In one instance, a senior professor cited her unwillingness to accept his advice and her avoidance of him in explaining his vote against granting her tenure.
Kim spent more than a year appealing the initial tenure denial, which was ultimately overturned.
Now seeking promotion to full professor, Kim said she feared publicly criticizing university leaders could again jeopardize her career.
Kotlikoff became the university’s interim president in July 2024 and took the job permanently last year.
He’s faced challenges including a dining and custodial workers strike, ire over his decision last year to pay $60 million to settle Trump administration civil rights investigations, and accusations from activists that his administration stifled campus protests.