Cornell says it’s making big changes on campus following the allegations of a gang rape, but it remains under fire. The Faculty Senate is now discussing a no-confidence vote of the president.
Transcript
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Cornell is banning fraternity parties through the end of the year. That’s one of several changes the university is making to improve campus safety in response to an allegation that a young woman was raped – gang-raped – at a frat house in 2024. The faculty senate is also scheduled to meet later today. On the agenda? Beginning the process of voting no confidence in university leadership. NPR’s Elissa Nadworny is in Ithaca, New York, and she’s here to tell us more about this. Good morning.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: OK – a ban on frat parties. But what else did the Cornell administration promise to do?
NADWORNY: So Cornell agreed to hire staff to help students as they navigate reporting sexual misconduct. They also said they would hire criminal investigators – so those are independent of Cornell – that would look into allegations of sexual assault on campus. They’re also going to add things like more bystander training.
In a letter announcing these changes, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff wrote that they were the first step towards systematic change. He pledged to address what he called deeply disturbing prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse on campus.
MARTIN: You know, like, recognizing that there’s – there are different constituencies on every campus – like, there’s faculty. There’s staff. There’s students – do people on campus think that’s enough?
NADWORNY: Well, I talked with a student who said the ban on frat parties felt more like good PR, a headline, than actual culture change. And professors I’ve talked with say that their trust is still broken, and the way that they’re going to communicate that is by asking the faculty to vote no confidence. Today’s meeting is going to begin that process. Anne Marie Brady, for example, is a member of the faculty senate who co-signed the motion.
ANNE MARIE BRADY: There’s a great sense of anger and, I think, also sadness. We have lost confidence in the administration to effectively address sexual assault and sexual harassment on campus.
NADWORNY: Over the weekend, more than 200 faculty and staff signed a letter to students that said, this administration does not speak for us. They say the university has failed to keep students safe and more change is needed.
MARTIN: Should the president be worried about his job?
NADWORNY: So the faculty doesn’t have the power to oust a president. Only the board of trustees can do that. They are also meeting later this week on campus here in Ithaca. Michel, I’ve been asking this question to professors and students – like, should Kotlikoff step down or be let go? And removing the president was actually not one of the student groups’ demands. This is sophomore John Hartnett.
JOHN HARTNETT: We don’t want Kotlikoff to go down for the mishandling of Jane Doe’s case and then someone to come in and mishandle another case the exact same way. We’re focused on the institution changing in a way that that sort of misconduct is structurally much less possible than it is now.
NADWORNY: He said that the changes announced yesterday were kind of a half measure. You know, that said, I was at a protest yesterday where crowds were chanting, Kotlikoff has got to go.
I guess all this to say, Michel, President Kotlikoff and his administration are under a lot of pressure. They’ve hired an outside investigator to look into what happened back in 2024. That’s Sally Yates, who helped lead the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama administration. And as you may recall, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has already appointed the state attorney general, Letitia James, as a special prosecutor to look into the case. I think the policy changes announced yesterday, including the ban on frat parties, really underscore just how much pressure the administration is under.
MARTIN: That is NPR’s Elissa Nadworny in Ithaca, New York. Elissa, thanks so much.
NADWORNY: You bet.
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