Cornell's Jane Doe told the faculty senate she felt disbelieved by President Michael Kotlikoff, and Cornell says her account of his words is wrong.

The dispute is over a single sentence, and neither side was quoting it first-hand in public. Jane Doe says it came from her sorority president. Cornell says it has a documented first-hand account that tells a different story. The letter is now in the hands of the independent review led by Sally Yates, and it lands as faculty weigh whether to vote no confidence in the administration. None of it moves the criminal investigation, which belongs to the attorney general's office.

The former Cornell University student known in court papers as Jane Doe has written to Cornell's Faculty Senate saying she "felt unsupported and disbelieved" by university President Michael Kotlikoff, CBS News and NBC News reported Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. Both outlets obtained the one-page letter, which was sent this month as the senate considers a vote of no confidence in Kotlikoff's administration. Crime Talk Network does not name people who report sexual assault.

In the letter, Jane Doe described what she called "a second-hand account" of a January 2025 meeting between Kotlikoff and the then-president of her sorority, Tri Delta, the outlets reported. "After the conversation she shared with me, with concern, that President Kotlikoff's initial response was along the lines of, 'Why did she wait so long to report it?'" she wrote, according to CBS News. "She interpreted his question as an expression of doubt in the veracity of my story." NBC News reported she wrote that at least one faculty member at the meeting "appeared distressed" and thought the president's response was inappropriate. She wrote that the comment "diminished my confidence in the administration's ability to approach my experience with the understanding, sensitivity, and fairness I had hoped for," CBS News reported. CBS News reported she went to campus police on Nov. 8, 2024, about three weeks after the alleged assault at the Chi Phi fraternity house.

Cornell disputed her account in a statement Tuesday. "The second-hand account of the question asked by President Kotlikoff in a January 2025 meeting in the letter is incorrect, based on a documented first-hand account," the university said, according to NBC News. "The question 'why did it take so long for the assault to be reported' was directed at bystanders who did not use Cornell's anonymous tip line, despite ongoing social media activity about the incident in October 2024. He was not questioning Jane Doe's reporting."

NBC News reported the letter has also raised questions about Dean of Faculty Chris Schaffer, who told senators Tuesday that he received it Oct. 14, shortly before the senate met to discuss a no-confidence vote. A professor on the senate, speaking anonymously, told NBC News, "If he received it on the 14th, he should have said so." Schaffer wrote that the letter came as correspondence from a lawyer representing Jane Doe, that he gave it to the Office of the General Counsel, and that it has been sent to the independent review led by former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, NBC News reported. "My intention is not to prescribe how the Senate should interpret this account," Jane Doe wrote, according to NBC News.

Jane Doe's civil lawsuit, filed in September against Cornell, the Chi Phi fraternity, seven of its then-members and others, including Tri Delta, accuses the men of drugging and sexually assaulting her at a party in October 2024, NBC News and CBS News reported. On Tuesday, former chapter president Orazio Petito, who was not accused of assault in the suit, was dropped from the case after his lawyer said he had been misidentified as president at the time. CBS News reported all seven former fraternity members have denied wrongdoing and none has been charged with a crime. The criminal investigation is being handled by New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed special prosecutor. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.