Cornell Faculty Vote Against Delays in Leadership Confidence Resolution

Cornell University faculty members voted on Wednesday to proceed with a no-confidence resolution regarding campus leadership.

The electronic vote remains open through 6 November and serves as a symbolic measure intended to pressure the university trustees who select the administration.

The dispute centers on the university's handling of a 2024 incident in which a student alleged she was drugged and raped by at least seven male students at a Chi Phi fraternity house.

All seven alleged attackers deny the claims against them.

New York state prosecutors reopened the case last month after the accuser, who has since left the university, filed a civil lawsuit naming the men.

State Attorney General Letitia James was appointed special counsel to investigate the matter earlier this month.

During a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, faculty debated the pace of the decision.

Some members urged a delay until an independent review of the university's response was complete.

Others argued that years of institutional failures demanded immediate action.

Economics professor Seth Sanders noted that about 80% of his department opposed the resolution for now.

Sanders stated that many colleagues are awaiting the independent investigation before forming a final judgment on the administration.

He described the lack of knowledge about the specifics of the Jane Doe case as a valid reason for caution regarding confidence in the leadership team led by President Michael Kotlikoff, who was provost when the accuser sought help during the harassment allegations he later addressed in the meeting context, though the primary focus remained on the current vote dynamics and the specific case details provided in the source regarding the 2024 rape case and the subsequent letters and rulings involving the accuser and the administration's response to the original complaint which resulted in only two expulsions while others received essays, workshops, or short suspensions following the review by Cornell, an elite, private sector university based in Ithaca, in upstate New York, where the woman accusing the men recently wrote a letter to the campus faculty senate saying she felt unsupported and disbelieved by Cornell’s president, and in a separate development at the weekend, a New York state judge ruled that she could continue to be identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe in the ongoing lawsuit, citing concerns for her safety, while the meeting itself saw Beth Frances Milles, a performing arts professor, plead for civility after describing receiving messages from women who experienced sexual assault, including former classmates, and stating, I understand we have to take action, There are so many things to talk about, Please, let’s talk about it together and not sneer at each other when we disagree, and music professor Ariana Kim shared her own experience of sexual harassment and bullying, describing how it affected her tenure case and how her efforts to get help from administrators went nowhere, and saying, It’s hard to get up and do that on a number of levels, describing a sense of relief and pride that she had spoken, and resolution co-sponsor Anne Marie Brady said she was encouraged by the breadth of faculty who spoke, despite fears of retaliation, as a contingent faculty member, she said, speaking publicly carried professional risks, and saying, The more people who speak out, the more we protect each other, in a phone interview after the meeting, after at least an hour of debate, members voted down an attempt to delay voting on the resolution until an independent investigation into Cornell’s handling of the sexual assault allegations was completed, and Wednesday’s meeting came a day after 20 female science and engineering faculty members called on Kotlikoff to resign in a letter to trustees that was obtained by AP.