Jane Doe, the woman who accused several Cornell University fraternity members of sexually assaulting her in 2024, sent a letter to the school’s Faculty Senate sharing a second-hand account of President Michael Kotlikoff’s response to her allegations ahead of a potential vote of no confidence in his administration.
In a letter obtained Wednesday by NBC News, Doe described a meeting between Kotlikoff and the president of her sorority, Tri Delta, months after she reported the alleged assault to the university. Doe wrote that the sorority president later told her that Kotlikoff allegedly wondered why she waited to report the incident.
“After the conversation, she shared with me, with concern, that Chairman Kotlikoff’s initial response was along the lines of, ‘Why did she wait so long to report this?'” Doe said in the letter. “She interpreted his question as an expression of doubt about the veracity of my story.”
Cornell disputed that characterization Tuesday, saying in a statement that Kotlikoff’s question during a January 2025 meeting focused on bystanders who had not reported the allegations, rather than Doe herself.
The letter comes amid increased scrutiny of Cornell’s handling of Doe’s allegations and growing debate among the school’s faculty members over whether to hold a vote of no confidence in the university’s administration. Earlier this month, Cornell hired former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates to lead an independent review, which will examine the school’s response to Doe’s allegations and broader policies governing sexual misconduct.
In a civil suit filed last month, Doe accused seven members of the now-disbanded Chi Phi fraternity of drugging and sexually assaulting her at a party in October 2024 and into the early hours of the next morning.
Orazio Petito, who was named as the fraternity’s former president, was excluded from the trial after his lawyer said he was “mistakenly” identified as the president of the Chi Phi chapter at the time of the alleged 2024 assault, according to court documents. Petito was not charged with assault in the trial.
Lawyers for several of the men have denied any wrongdoing or disputed his account. Doe’s attorney did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Cornell then investigated the allegations as part of its Title IX disciplinary process, expelling two students and imposing suspensions or lesser sanctions on the others. The university also launched a presidential task force on campus sexual assault in early 2025 and said in a statement Tuesday that it was implementing recommendations to improve its response to sexual misconduct.
“The second-hand account of the question posed by Chairman Kotlikoff during a January 2025 meeting in the letter is incorrect, based on a documented first-hand account,” the statement added. “The question ‘Why did it take so long for the assault to be reported’ was directed at bystanders who had not used Cornell’s anonymous tip line, despite continued social media activity about the October 2024 incident. It did not question Jane Doe’s reporting.”
In her letter, Doe wrote that the sorority president told her that at least one other faculty member who attended the meeting “seemed upset” after hearing Kotlikoff’s question. Doe said the faculty member thought the president’s “response was inappropriate.”
“I felt unsupported and in disbelief by President Kotlikoff,” Doe wrote in the letter. “It diminished my confidence in the administration’s ability to approach my experience with the understanding, sensitivity and fairness that I had hoped and expected from what had been my dream school.”
Doe added that she is now sharing this account because she is not sure how many people know about the meeting or the president’s response.
“My intention is not to prescribe how the Senate should interpret this narrative, but rather to provide information that its members may wish to consider or explore further,” she wrote. “I would not want to hide something potentially relevant, only for members of the Senate to later discover that information relevant to their deliberations was not made available to them.”
The letter prompted questions from at least one faculty member about how it was handled by Cornell Faculty Dean Chris Schaffer. A Faculty Senate professor, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the situation, told NBC News that Schaffer told members Tuesday that he received Doe’s letter last week, the same day the Senate met to discuss whether to hold a vote of no confidence.
“If he received it on the 14th, he should have said so,” the professor said.
Cornell said Schaffer received the letter as “legal correspondence purporting to be from a law firm representing Jane Doe” and “then gave it to the general counsel to verify and share with the independent review.”
“Shortly before the start of the Senate meeting on October 14, I received a communication from an attorney representing Jane Doe, who relayed a second-hand account from Chairman Kotlikoff inquiring about the timeline for reporting on the assault of Jane Doe in 2024,” he wrote. “Later, I received a contemporary account of the meeting from a university official who was present, indicating that President Kotlikoff asked passersby ‘why did it take so long for the assault to be reported’ via Cornell’s anonymous line, given the level of discussion of the events on social media. The question was not about Jane Doe or her decision to report.”
Schaffer added that his office “does not have the investigative capacity to properly follow up on private communications of this type, nor is it the office’s role.”
“In the interest of transparency, I am writing now to inform the Senate that I received this communication, forwarded it to the Office of General Counsel, and they sent it to the investigative team led by former Assistant Attorney General Sally Yates,” he added. “Any person with information that they believe is relevant to the deliberations of the Cornell Senate may make that information public or communicate it directly.”
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