The former Cornell student known as Jane Doe has sent a letter to the school saying she “felt unsupported and disbelieved” by university President Michael Kotlikoff after she accused multiple men of sexually assaulting her at a fraternity house in 2024.
The letter, obtained by CBS News, was sent earlier this month to Cornell’s Faculty Senate as it considers a no-confidence vote in Kotlikoff’s administration. In it, Jane Doe describes what she calls “a second-hand account” of a conversation between Kotlikoff and the then-president of Cornell’s Tri Delta sorority chapter.
“After the conversation she shared with me, with concern, that President Kotlikoff’s initial response was along the lines of, ‘Why did she wait so long to report it?'” Jane Doe wrote. “She interpreted his question as an expression of doubt in the veracity of my story.”
The University’s Response
Cornell said in a statement Tuesday that her description of Kotlikoff’s comment is “incorrect, based on a documented first-hand account.”
“The question ‘why did it take so long for the assault to be reported’ was directed at bystanders who did not use Cornell’s anonymous tip line, despite ongoing social media activity about the incident in October 2024,” Cornell said. “He was not questioning Jane Doe’s reporting.”
In her one-page letter, Jane Doe wrote that hearing of the comment “diminished my confidence in the administration’s ability to approach my experience with the understanding, sensitivity, and fairness I had hoped for and expected from what had been my dream school.”
The Lawsuit
How Cornell and its leadership handled Jane Doe’s original report is one of the issues raised in the civil lawsuit she filed last month against the university, the Chi Phi fraternity, seven of its then-members, and others including her sorority at the time, Delta Delta Delta.
Jane Doe reported the alleged assault to campus police on November 8, 2024, about three weeks after she said it took place at the Chi Phi fraternity house. CBS News has reached out to the seven former fraternity members. All have denied wrongdoing. None has been charged with a crime.
In a court filing Tuesday, a former president of the Chi Phi fraternity was dropped from her lawsuit. His attorney, Eric Bernstein, said his client wasn’t serving as president at the time of the alleged assault. “We’re not validating or commenting on the charges or the allegations themselves but they had the wrong guy here,” Bernstein said.
The Bottom Line
A former Cornell student known as Jane Doe has told the university’s Faculty Senate that she felt “unsupported and disbelieved” by President Michael Kotlikoff after reporting an alleged sexual assault at a fraternity house in 2024. Cornell disputes her account, saying Kotlikoff’s question about the delay in reporting was directed at bystanders, not at Jane Doe. Her letter comes as the Faculty Senate considers a no-confidence vote in Kotlikoff’s administration. Her civil lawsuit against the university and others continues.
My Opinion
Jane Doe did what she was supposed to do. She reported an alleged assault. She cooperated with police. She filed a lawsuit. And then she heard that the president of her university had asked why she waited so long to report it. Whether Kotlikoff meant it the way she heard it or not, the damage is done. She felt disbelieved. And that feeling is not a misunderstanding. It is the predictable result of a system that treats survivors as suspects.
Cornell says the question was directed at bystanders, not at Jane Doe. Maybe that is true. But the fact that a sorority president walked away from that conversation believing the university president doubted Jane Doe tells you something about how the message landed. If the president wanted to encourage reporting, he should have been clear. He should have been unambiguous. He should have made sure no one left that room thinking he doubted a survivor.
The Faculty Senate is considering a no-confidence vote. That is the right conversation to have. But the real question is not whether Kotlikoff stays or goes. It is whether Cornell — and every university — can create a system where survivors feel believed. Right now, that system does not exist. Jane Doe is telling us why.
