Cornell: Hire independent investigators for every sexual assault case

The petition to Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff and the Cornell Board of Trustees reads:

Commit now to hiring independent, trauma-informed investigators from outside Cornell to handle every investigation and hearing involving sexual assault on campus. When Jane Doe reported that she had been gang-raped at a campus fraternity in 2024, Cornell's own police department condensed her account. Then a panel of Cornell faculty and staff decided the outcome, while the university's reputation and legal liability were on the line. You have already agreed that outside counsel should review how Cornell handled this one case. Every sexual assault case on the Cornell campus deserves an independent investigation, not just the ones that go viral. With more than one in three undergraduate women at Cornell reporting nonconsensual sexual contact, students cannot afford a system where the university investigates itself.

On October 2, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office has opened an active criminal investigation into the alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell sophomore at the campus Chi Phi  fraternity house. The case is now widely known as the "Cornell 7." ¹

Every person who decided Jane Doe's case at Cornell worked for the same institution whose reputation, and legal liability, was on the line.

That is a clear conflict of interest, and survivors pay the price for it.

Cornell has already admitted that its own handling of this case needs outside eyes. Last week, the university agreed to let an outside law firm review how it responded to Jane Doe's report, and University President Michael Kotlikoff released a video pledging his full support.^2,3

Now we need Kotlikoff and Cornell's Board of Trustees to actually do the work by committing to hire independent investigators for every sexual assault case on campus.

Schools across the country hire outside investigators, such as lawyers trained in trauma-informed interviewing, specialized investigators and retired judges, specifically to remove conflicts of interest from these cases.⁴ One more benefit: survivors don't have to keep running into the people who judged their case around campus.^5,6 Dartmouth, one of Cornell's Ivy League peers, has used external investigators in its sexual misconduct process.⁷

There's no reason Cornell can't do the same. 

Survivors shouldn't have to file a lawsuit, go viral, or wait for a governor to step in just to get a fair investigation.

Sources

1. NY Attorney General Letitia James to oversee inquiry into Cornell rape case, NPR, October 1, 2026
2. Cornell agrees to an independent probe into its handling of a fraternity rape case, NPR, September 30, 2026
3. Cornell President Calls Gang Rape Allegations ‘Deeply Disturbing, NPR, October 4, 2026.
4. Outsourcing Rape Investigations, Inside Higher Ed, October 9, 2017
5. Why Outsourcing Title IX Investigations is Best, IHN HR, August 24, 2020
6. Dartmouth Announces New Unified Policy on Sexual Misconduct, Dartmouth College, August 2019
7. Ibid.