SA R15 (2026-2027): Institutional Transparency and Accountability in the University’s Response to Sexual Assault

Acknowledged by the President

• Resolution:
  SA R15 (2026-2027): Institutional Transparency and Accountability in the University’s Response to Sexual Assault
• Day:
  November 5, 2026
• Action:
  Acknowledged by the President
• Summary / Notes:
• File Attachments:
• Text Attachment:

  Dear Eeshaan,

  Thank you for conveying Resolution 15: Institutional Transparency and Accountability in the University’s Response to Sexual Assault. I appreciate the Student Assembly’s concern around sexual misconduct within our campus community, its interest in better understanding the practices and procedures with which allegations of such misconduct are handled, and its desire for increased communication regarding incidents of misconduct in general and the 2024 assault of Jane Doe in particular.

  Over the past several weeks, an enormous amount of information on these topics, much of it inaccurate, distorted, and/or misleading, has circulated in the media and online, while the information shared by Cornell has been far more limited. This, I know, has been profoundly frustrating to many. That the university’s legal obligations prevent it from releasing information that corrects these reports and allegations through a full and transparent accounting has unfortunately contributed both to feelings of distrust, and to an inaccurate perception that the Cornell administration is choosing to conceal information it could and should release.

  These are concerns that have been front of mind for me and for my leadership team as we have worked to balance our community’s desire for information with Cornell’s obligations to our students under our own policies and federal law, as well as significant concerns for their current and future privacy, safety, and well-being. Over the past month and a half, we have seen personal information about our students, faculty, and staff, as well as some of their families, spread irresponsibly, and sometimes maliciously, online. As a result, members of our community have been subjected to horrifying levels of hate and abuse—online, through the mail, by phone, and in person—including serious and credible threats of physical harm. These experiences underscore the importance of our responsibility to ensure that the details of our students’ private lives, including students who have been accused of serious violations of our behavioral standards, remain private—both to the standard of the law, and in practice.

  Federal educational law, including FERPA, is in force to protect the rights of students, and remains in force regardless of whether student records have already been made public through non-university sources. On the state level, Article 129-B of the New York State Education Law requires Cornell to maintain a reporting individual’s privacy to the greatest extent possible. These laws, created in support of student privacy, function by constraining a university’s ability to share information. 

  Even when it is legally possible to release certain information, there are circumstances where doing so may have far-reaching consequences on students’ lives that must be considered. For example, although information has been anonymized before release, others in our community may still be able to connect a respondent’s name with a complainant’s, resulting in intimate details being made public with significant and lasting personal and professional impact. Publicly sharing disciplinary outcomes can lead to litigation challenging the outcome of the proceedings, resulting in public, drawn-out, and traumatic legal proceedings. Nonetheless, in response to the exceptional circumstances, and particularly the enormous amount of misinformation, recently surrounding the 2024 Jane Doe case, the university publicly confirmed in early October that temporary suspensions and other restrictive measures were issued when the conduct was reported;  that Chi Phi, Xi Chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus; and that, following the university’s extensive Title IX investigation, sanctions including expulsions and suspensions were issued by a hearing panel comprised of trained faculty and staff. 

  The university takes seriously the community’s desire for additional transparency, and is now conducting internal reviews of its practices to ensure that we are finding the appropriate balance between our community’s interest in information regarding conduct on campus, and our students’ right to privacy. From 2020 through 2024, the Cornell Office of Civil Rights did publish anonymized statistics concerning the resolution of Policy 6.4 formal complaints, including, for each case, the prohibited conduct, resolution type, outcome, and any sanctions or remedies. The university stopped this practice after the Spring 2024 semester because the number of formal complaints was so low that the university could not ensure anonymity of the students involved as required by privacy laws. COCR began work this past summer to build public dashboards that will provide broad information about reports and resolutions in a legally compliant manner; that work is ongoing and will be completed as expeditiously as possible.

  Every year, Cornell submits aggregate data to the New York State Education Department related to reports of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault. This includes reports that occur on and off campus where at least one person involved is a student, and includes the number of reports, the number of cases in which a respondent was found responsible, and information on sanctions imposed. You can find this data at https://www.nysed.gov/information-reporting-services/chapter-76-laws-2015-enough-enough-annual-aggregate-data-report.

  The Division of Public Safety sends timely warnings pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act. The Annual Security Report containing data from the three most recent calendar years of Clery Act crime statistics is available at https://publicsafety.cornell.edu/clery/.

  Regarding communication around the 2024 assault of Jane Doe specifically, the university has communicated extensively with the community about both the incident itself and the steps the university has been taking to combat sexual violence: beginning with the initial crime alert in November 2024, through my community-wide message sent later that month, and continuing through the work of the Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault over the following year. With the enormous increase in public attention to these issues that followed the filing of Jane Doe’s lawsuit in September, university administrators, including myself, have participated in numerous town halls and other forums. As you are aware, in collaboration with student leaders, an additional student town hall has been scheduled for November 16, with attendance from senior university leadership. 

  With regard to the request for the university to provide additional support for and information to complainants about the hearing process that can occur under Policy 6.4, COCR already informs complainants in writing about the hearing process, including the availability of separate-room and remote participation and the involvement of trained advisors, in both its published procedures and direct, case-specific outreach to complainants. In addition, the complainant and respondent(s) in every case already receive the final results of a proceeding regardless of outcome, and Cornell’s transcript notation policy is available online at https://registrar.cornell.edu/students/transcripts. 

  COCR already provides complainants and respondents with supportive measures in accordance with federal law and Cornell policy, including through the Sexual Harassment & Assault—Response & Education (SHARE) Office, offices of the Codes Counselors, Counseling and Psychological Services, Student Support and Advocacy Services, and others. Cornell is also in the process of adding staff to COCR, including a dedicated Case Manager who will assist individuals reporting sexual misconduct with navigating other university processes. Student support staff will also be increased to provide additional Victim Advocate support in the SHARE office and additional prevention-focused programs across campus.

  The SA has also asked for improvements in and additional information regarding the university’s enforcement of conduct violations by recognized Greek organizations. There are already multiple mechanisms for individuals to submit anonymous reports of conduct violations, including conditions or behavior in chapter houses: (i) for emergency situations, calling 911; (ii) the Guardian reporting system; or (iii) the Cornell Ethical Conduct and Compliance Hotline, which can be used to file a report with the CUPD Silent Witness Program or the University Audit Office. In recent weeks, CUPD has added increased patrols to monitor every fraternity chapter house on weekend evenings, to ensure the suspension of social activities is being upheld. Organizational misconduct (including by Greek organizations) under the Student Code of Conduct is handled by the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, and information about its processes and sanctions is available on its website.

  As you know, the Presidential Task Force on Sexual Assault both included undergraduate student members, and held multiple focus groups, open forums, and other opportunities to gather input from students. Its recommendations, developed with broad community input and participation, were presented this past spring. An implementation committee has since been formed and, as I shared with the community in my October 13 message, is now working on an aggressive timeline to put those recommendations into practice.  The implementation committee welcomes additional engagement from students on these efforts, and I encourage the assembly to communicate directly with committee co-chairs Rachel Dunifon, dean of the College of Human Ecology, and Julie Edwards, AVP for Student Health and Wellbeing.

  I recognize that the constraints on our ability to be fully open and transparent about the details around the Jane Doe case have contributed to concerns in our community about our processes. This is one of the reasons why, as you know, a special committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees has retained former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates, a partner at the law firm King & Spalding LLP, to lead a comprehensive independent review of this case, as well as how the University prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault, and related misconduct on campus more broadly. The scope of the investigation will also include evaluating Cornell’s practices against applicable requirements under Title IX, the Clery Act, the Violence Against Women Act’s Campus SaVE Act and New York state law; recognized best practices in higher education for preventing and responding to sexual misconduct; coordination by the offices on campus that investigate such misconduct under Title IX, the Student Code of Conduct, and criminal law; and appropriate disclosures of information to the community.

  Your questions regarding those processes, and how they were followed in this particular case, will be best answered following the conclusion of Ms. Yates’s investigation.

  Sincerely,

  Michael Kotlikoff