Cornell responds to Jane Doe’s letter saying she didn’t feel believed and didn’t have support from school president

The former Cornell student known as Jane Doe sent a letter at school saying she “felt unsupported and disbelieved” by university president Michael Kotlikoff after he accused several men of sexually assaulting her during a fraternity house in 2024.

In a statement released Tuesday, Cornell disputed his version of Kotlikoff’s comments.

The letter, obtained by CBS News, was sent earlier this month to Cornell’s office. Faculty Senate because he is considering a vote of no confidence in Kotlikoff’s administration. In the letter, Jane Doe describes what she calls “a second-hand account” of a conversation between Kotlikoff and the then-president of Cornell’s Tri Delta sorority chapter.

“After the conversation, she relayed to me, with concern, that President Kotlikoff’s initial response was along the lines of, ‘Why did she wait so long to report this?'” Jane Doe wrote in the letter. “She interpreted his question as an expression of doubt about the veracity of my story.”

Jane Doe reported the alleged assault to campus police on November 8, 2024, about three weeks after he said it took place at the Chi Phi fraternity house.

The university said in its statement Tuesday that its description of Kotlikoff’s comment in the letter was “incorrect, based on a first-hand documented account.”

“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,” Cornell said. “He wasn’t questioning Jane Doe’s reporting.”

In her one-page letter, Jane Doe wrote that hearing this comment “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.”

She added, “I’m sharing this story now because, to my knowledge, only a few people are aware of the conversation; I don’t know if you or other members of the Faculty Senate are among them.”

In a statement provided to CBS News Tuesday regarding the letter, Jane Doe’s attorney said, “Jane Doe, through her attorney, made a statement to the Dean of Faculty and the President of the Faculty Senate regarding her understanding of the comments made by President Kotlikoff in the presence of one of her sorority sisters and one or more faculty members.” Jane Doe would ask the Faculty Senate to give her letter whatever weight or credibility it deems appropriate.

How Cornell and its leaders handled Jane Doe’s initial report about the alleged assaults is one of the questions raised in the civil lawsuit she filed last month against the university, the Chi Phi fraternity and seven of its then membersand others, including her sorority at the time, Delta Delta Delta.

CBS News reached out to the seven former members of the fraternity. All have denied any wrongdoing. None of them have been charged with a crime.

In a court filing filed Tuesday, a former Chi Phi fraternity president was excluded from her trial. His attorney, Eric Bernstein, told CBS News in a statement that his client was not president of the fraternity at the time of the alleged assault.

“We do not validate or comment on the accusations or allegations themselves, but they did not choose the right person here. We are pleased with the outcome,” Bernstein said in the statement.