President Michael Kotlikoff's interview with the New York Times yesterday shows a shocking lack of concern for the victim of the (alleged) gang rape at the Chi Phil fraternity at Cornell in the fall of 2024. I'm really surprised at his lack of curiosity about a really appalling incident of abuse and victimization.
The president of Cornell University said on Tuesday that he learned that a student had reported being gang-raped at a fraternity party on campus shortly after she first came forward in November 2024.Did he care about Jane Doe at all? After he initially heard of the accusation of gang rape, he did not follow her case at all or try to find out what had happened to her after the Title IX investigation had ended.
But in the months afterward, he said, he did not follow up with her or seek to learn whether any of the accused men had been punished.
The president, Michael Kotlikoff, did not know that the woman had dropped out of Cornell until she filed a lawsuit last month under the pseudonym Jane Doe, he said in an interview with The New York Times.
Dr. Kotlikoff said he and other school officials did not have a full picture of Jane Doe’s allegations and the subsequent investigation until earlier this month, when The Times published articles based on more than 1,000 pages of confidential records amassed during the university’s Title IX investigation in 2025. He said that, at the time, he was determined to allow that inquiry to be undertaken independently, and, to respect students’ privacy, did not ask about the results.
“I do think it’s important to understand we have more information now than we had at that time,” he said.
But experts in federal civil rights law said Dr. Kotlikoff most likely could have examined any of the material gathered during the investigation after the proceedings ended in the summer of 2025.
“Generally speaking, university presidents can be given access to completed Title IX investigative files when reviewing those materials serves a legitimate institutional purpose,” said Scott Schneider, a Title IX lawyer and adviser, adding that neither civil rights laws nor student privacy laws bar that access.
Dr. Kotlikoff also said he was not informed when the Tompkins County district attorney declined to bring charges in the case. And he said that, in hindsight, he felt he should have been alerted when Jane Doe withdrew from the school.
