Cornell University's Board of Trustees announced Tuesday that a newly created Special Committee has retained Sally Q. Yates, the former Deputy and Acting Attorney General of the United States, to run a top-to-bottom independent review of how the school prevents and responds to sexual misconduct. Yates, now a partner at King & Spalding, will report directly to the committee rather than to Cornell's administration.
The review lands in the middle of one of the most closely watched campus cases in the country. A woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe alleges she was drugged with ketamine and assaulted by multiple members of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024. No one has been criminally charged. Seven former students named in a civil suit deny misconduct, and the account of that night is sharply disputed by both sides.
The announcement is notable because Cornell is paying an outside lawyer to examine Cornell — including, by the university's own description, the Board's oversight of the matter. The university has not said when the findings will be finished or how much of the work will be made public.
What Yates Is Actually Being Asked to Look At
According to Cornell's own statement, the mandate is broad: policies, practices and resources; how reports of misconduct are received and investigated; support offered to students; hearings, disciplinary decisions and appeals; the role of the campus police department; coordination with outside law enforcement and prosecutors; campus safety reporting; fraternity and sorority oversight; and the Board's own conduct. The work will be benchmarked against Title IX, the Clery Act, the Campus SaVE Act provisions of the Violence Against Women Act, New York State law and what the university calls higher-education best practices.
Cornell says Yates and her firm will have "full independence" and access to records, case files, personnel and leadership. The Special Committee is chaired by Board chair Anne Meinig Smalling and includes Jennifer L. Davis, Tara Holm, Howard L. Morgan, Beckie Robertson, Stephen C. Robinson, Martin F. Scheinman and Robert W. Selander.
"Sally Yates brings extraordinary experience, independence and judgment to this work," Smalling said in the statement. She added: "It is imperative that Cornell be willing to examine itself with the same rigor we expect of others."
Yates is a name that carries political freight. She was an Obama administration appointee and was fired by President Trump in 2017, as an Associated Press account of the announcement noted. Cornell's statement leans instead on her decades as a federal prosecutor and her independent investigation for U.S. Soccer into abuse and misconduct in women's professional soccer — an inquiry the AP described as covering harassment and coercion in the NWSL. Neither Yates nor King & Spalding has publicly commented.
The Case Behind the Review
The Daily Wire reported that Jane Doe went to campus police in November 2024, roughly three weeks after the October gathering. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten initially declined to bring charges, then later reopened the matter. Governor Kathy Hochul has since appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor. Cornell's internal review is separate from that criminal investigation.
A civil lawsuit filed last month names the university, seven former students, the fraternity and others. The Daily Wire, citing other outlets' reporting, said Cornell expelled two students and suspended two more, and that a judge last month rejected a separate suit brought by a student identified as John Doe challenging his discipline. Those specifics are secondhand and have not been confirmed by the university.
The factual dispute is real and unresolved. Doe alleges she was drugged and assaulted; the accused say the encounter was consensual, and the Daily Wire reported that Van Houten pointed to a sworn statement from her describing voluntary conduct. No court has decided any of it.
A Campus Already Boiling
President Michael Kotlikoff released a video statement on Saturday, Oct. 3. "What happened to Jane Doe in 2024 is deeply disturbing and will weigh heavily on our community for years to come," he said. It did not settle things. Students rallied on a campus plaza Monday demanding accountability, transparency and an overhaul of the disciplinary process, with some calling for Kotlikoff to resign. The Daily Wire, citing NBC's reporting from the rally, quoted a student speaker, Athena Holloway, asking, "How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?" That account has not been independently confirmed.
Cornell has set no deadline, no budget and no firm commitment to publish Yates's findings. The statement says the work will proceed "expeditiously" and that the university "intends to share" results.
Next up: James's criminal probe, the civil litigation, the John Doe appeal, and whatever Yates hands the Special Committee — on a timetable nobody has announced.
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