Cornell faculty declares no confidence in university leaders

Cornell University's faculty senate approved a resolution on Friday declaring "no confidence" in the school's top leaders.

The resolution passed 75-50, with five faculty senators abstaining and five others not voting, according to an email sent to members of the faculty senate on Friday afternoon.

Voting took place electronically over more than a week, with the results released on Friday.

The vote followed weeks of debate among professors over whether Cornell's president, Michael Kotlikoff, and other administrators handled a former student's allegations properly and whether they have done enough to curtail sexual misconduct at the university.

The former student says she was gang-raped at a fraternity party in 2024. The resolution is symbolic, because the faculty body has no power over the university's top leaders, but backers of the resolution had said they hoped it would pressure Cornell's trustees to urgently address what they viewed as longstanding institutional failures.

The Cornell community has been in distress since mid-September, when the former student filed a lawsuit against the university and seven former members of the Chi Phi fraternity, saying she was given ketamine and raped at a fraternity house in October 2024.

All of those men have denied her allegations, saying that either the sex was consensual or they were not involved. The local district attorney initially decided the woman had consented to the encounter and that no crime had been committed, but the investigation has since been reopened and handed to New York's attorney general.

Cornell disciplined several of the accused students after a months-long Title IX investigation. Two were expelled, two received suspensions and probation, and two were required to write "reflection" papers and complete bystander training. A seventh man had already graduated and was barred from campus.

Kotlikoff also convened a taskforce to study the problem of sexual misconduct on campus, which released certain recommendations.

Some faculty members have been furious with Kotlikoff for not acting more forcefully to strengthen the school's disciplinary process, push for criminal investigations and change campus party culture. The no-confidence resolution did not call for Kotlikoff's resignation.