Cornell picks former deputy US attorney general to review sex assault response

Cornell University has enlisted former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to conduct a review of the institution's responses to sexual assault.

Cornell announced the review on Tuesday, saying the review will generally cover Cornell's policies aimed at preventing and responding to sexual assault.

Yates will also conduct a "detailed review of the University’s response to the allegations involving Jane Doe and members of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024, including whether Cornell followed its policies and procedures in responding to the matter."

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"The review will examine Cornell’s policies, practices and resources across the full range of prevention and response, including how reports are received and investigated; how students are supported; how hearings, disciplinary decisions and appeals are handled; the role, processes and response of campus police; coordination with other law enforcement agencies and prosecutors; campus safety reporting; and policies and oversight involving fraternities, sororities and other student organizations. It will also examine the Board’s oversight of these issues," Cornell said in a statement.

Anne Meinig Smalling, who chairs the Cornell University Special Committee of Board of Trustees, said Yates will conduct a "rigorous examination" of Cornell's handling of the issue as student protests have taken over the campus this week.

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"Sally Yates brings extraordinary experience, independence and judgment to this work... The questions raised by the Jane Doe matter warrant a rigorous examination of Cornell’s response to that case, but our responsibility is broader," Smalling said in a statement. "We have asked Ms. Yates and her team to examine Cornell’s overall approach to preventing and responding to sexual misconduct, identify where we are doing things well and where we can do better, and recommend changes that will help make our community safer."

Seven former Chi Phi fraternity brothers are accused in a lawsuit of drugging and raping a female Cornell student during a night of drinking, drugs and group sex at their fraternity house in October 2024.

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The accuser, identified in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Doe, alleges the men sexually assaulted her after she arrived intoxicated and was pressured into taking ketamine and other substances. The men have denied wrongdoing, with some maintaining the sexual activity was consensual and others denying they participated in it. No criminal charges have been filed against the seven men.

The case has now erupted into a political and legal firestorm, with New York Attorney General Letitia James announcing Friday that her office is conducting an "active criminal investigation" after Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed the Office of the Attorney General as special prosecutor. Cornell has separately agreed to retain outside counsel to conduct an independent review of the university's handling of the allegations.

At the center of the controversy are sharply conflicting accounts of what happened that night, including differences between what Doe said in the weeks afterward, what prosecutors say they received from Cornell police and the explosive allegations contained in a lawsuit filed nearly two years later.