Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates has been tasked with leading an independent investigation into Cornell University’s handling of a former student’s rape allegations. Here, Yates speaks at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2017.
Steven Senne/AP
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Steven Senne/AP
Cornell University has named Sally Yates, a former acting U.S. attorney general and career federal prosecutor, to head an independent internal review into the school’s handling of a former student’s rape allegations.
The announcement comes as the school continues to face outrage on campus and nationally after a former student filed a civil suit alleging she was drugged and gang raped in 2024. The woman, identified in the suit as Jane Doe, also alleged failings by the school in how it handled her complaint and its aftermath.
Yates, a partner at King & Spalding and former deputy U.S. attorney general under President Barack Obama, was selected by the new special committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees. She will also review the school’s policies related to how it “prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault and related misconduct on campus,” the school announced Tuesday.
“Sally Yates brings extraordinary experience, independence and judgment to this work,” Anne Meinig Smalling, chair of the special committee, said in the school’s announcement. “The questions raised by the Jane Doe case warrant rigorous review of Cornell’s response to this case, but our responsibility is broader. We asked Ms. Yates and her team to review Cornell’s overall approach to preventing and responding to sexual misconduct, identify areas where we are doing things well and where we can do better, and recommend changes that will help make our community safer.
Doe filed her complaint in mid-September. In it, Doe alleges that seven men drugged and assaulted her for several hours in October 2024 at their Chi Phi fraternity house on campus. No criminal charges were ever filed against the men. Those named in the lawsuit have denied any wrongdoing. Cornell University is also named as a defendant in Doe’s lawsuit.
The university argued that Cornell University police thoroughly investigated the matter and that the school conducted its own Title IX investigation, which resulted in suspensions and expulsions.
But in the weeks since the lawsuit was filed, students have protested the university’s response to the matter. New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed state Attorney General Letitia James to lead a criminal investigation into the rape case, after sharp criticism of her handling by campus police and local prosecutor Matthew Van Houten. The case also reignited national debates about consent and sexual assault on college campuses.
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