Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff admitted he never read the police report on a gang rape allegedly committed at a campus fraternity house, never followed up on the victim, and now faculty are responding with a no-confidence vote they themselves concede is "largely symbolic."
A woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe filed suit last month alleging seven Chi Phi fraternity members sexually assaulted or exploited her in October 2024. All seven men have denied the allegations. The local district attorney declined to pursue charges, and the criminal investigation stalled. Kotlikoff told The New York Times he never followed up to learn what happened to the woman or the investigation.
When a faculty member asked whether he had read the Cornell Police Department's report on the rape allegations, Kotlikoff said he had not — claiming police investigations are confidential and top administrators shouldn't have a role in criminal investigations. "I really reject the idea that I had no interest in it or was not concerned about it," Kotlikoff said, according to an audio recording of the Oct. 14 Faculty Senate meeting obtained by the Associated Press.
His defense: replacing him would "harm Cornell's reputation." The institution's brand over the student who says she was gang-raped under his watch.
The rot goes deeper. Faculty also questioned Cornell's handling of a disciplined student who was returned to campus and assigned to a shared dorm room — with a roommate who had no idea about his disciplinary history. The administration put an unwitting student in potential danger and didn't think the roommate deserved to know.
Some Faculty Senate members are already warning that a "hasty no-confidence vote would do little to address the underlying problems," according to both the Baltimore Sun and U.S. News & World Report, which ran identical Associated Press reporting. Translation: don't rock the boat too hard. The vote, which opens after Wednesday's closed-door meeting and runs through Nov. 6, is anonymous and carries no binding authority. Only the university's trustees can actually remove a president.
Kotlikoff has other baggage. He paid $60 million last year to settle Trump administration civil rights investigations. Dining and custodial workers went on strike. Activists accuse his administration of stifling campus protests. This is an administrator who failed upward into the permanent presidency after taking the interim job in July 2024.
The real question isn't whether the faculty pass a symbolic resolution. It's whether anyone with actual power at Cornell — the trustees — believes a president who couldn't be bothered to read a gang rape report deserves to keep his job.
