In protests, statements and open letters, some Cornell students and faculty members continued to express outrage this week at how the university had handled allegations of a gang rape at a fraternity house two years ago.
But inside the meeting halls where the university’s powerful board of trustees gathered on Thursday and Friday, there were no visible cracks in its unity.
One board member, who shared details of what was talked about behind closed doors on the condition of anonymity, said that discussions of how to plot a path forward for the university dominated the board meeting on Friday.
The trustees’ prevailing concerns, this person said, appeared to be about quickly getting clarity on how the university was addressing the fallout from the allegations made by the former undergraduate, Jane Doe, and about creating additional support for students — and not about anger or a push for a no-confidence vote in Cornell’s president, Michael I. Kotlikoff.
The multiday board meeting, and a small protest held by students on Friday outside of where board members gathered, came at the start of an unusually subdued homecoming weekend at Cornell, as the campus continues to grapple with the aftermath of a lawsuit filed by the former undergraduate against Cornell, the fraternity, her sorority and the seven men who she alleged sexually assaulted her in October 2024.
Cornell canceled its annual drone and laser show to respect a moratorium on student events that had been passed by Ithaca’s town council in the wake of the lawsuit. Student organizers canceled a concert out of respect for survivors of sexual violence. Rainy skies appeared to leave some events on Friday sparsely attended, like an opportunity to rappel down the side of the football stadium.
And there were no outward fireworks from the board, which has the power to force resignations over the Jane Doe case. Three brief meetings open to the public between Thursday and Friday — the longest of which lasted 25 minutes — provided a glimpse at an assembly determined to present itself as collegial and unfazed.
None of the university’s 64 trustees were willing to speak on the record to the media during the meetings, some using even umbrellas to block a photographer’s view of them on a rainy day. Earlier in the week, Board Chair Anne Smalling appeared with Dr. Kotlikoff during an interview with The New York Times, an implicit endorsement of his leadership.
The board has stuck with Dr. Kotlikoff though other crises — the divisive student protests over the Israel-Hamas war, the university’s $60 million deal with the Trump White House, and an embarrassing incident in which he bumped into protesters with his car. There seemed no immediate sign that they were going to change horses this time.
While the campus’s faculty senate is debating a resolution of no confidence in the administration, some alumni and donors are clearly standing behind Dr. Kotlikoff.
John S. Dyson, a trustee emeritus and a major Cornell donor, said that the trust was because he and others felt Dr. Kotlikoff — who served as provost for nearly a decade before rising to the presidency in 2024 — had taken appropriate steps in the immediate aftermath of Jane Doe’s allegations and through the recent fallout. He felt it was the district attorney who dropped the ball.
“Mike is taking these kind of steps with a lot of advice from people on the board,” he said, mentioning in particular a recent decision by Cornell to ask for help from the state police in investigating sex crimes. “If you bring in some guy from the outside, where does he start?”
“It’s a very simplistic idea that you replace him,” he added.
The board’s only public hint at the current crisis came from Harriet P. Schleifer, the university relations committee chair.
“As you know, we have had some difficult times at Cornell and the broader community,” she told fellow trustees at an open meeting on Thursday. “I do think it’s important that we are all together here today.”
A special committee of the board has already announced that it has retained Sally Yates, a former deputy attorney general, to lead a comprehensive independent review of how the university prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault and related misconduct on campus. That review could take months.
In addition to asking that those answers be presented with urgency, the trustees also asked administrators for more clarity on a host of fronts related to their current response to the woman’s lawsuit, including for more concrete details on how a recently announced ban on fraternity parties would be carried out, according to the trustee who provided details.
Outside the meeting hall, protesters on Friday drew attention to what they saw as the dire failings of the board and Dr. Kotlikoff in Jane Doe’s case.
Using megaphones and displaying the faces of the president, other administrators and the accused men on stakes, about 60 protesters held a mock trial, finding the seven men accused by Jane Doe guilty of all charges. In reading out their allegations against Cornell, they focused particular ire on its decision to expel only two of the men accused.
“There’s a great deal of mistrust and disappointment in the way the university has handled this case,” said Kaori Quan, a member of the graduate student union.
The accused men have all denied wrongdoing and none have been charged with a crime.
After about an hour, the protest escalated. A row of students, banging on pots and pans, faced off against the Cornell police guarding a trustee event at Barton Hall. But they dispersed in the rain, and no arrests were made.
Among the alumni coming to campus for homecoming, the mood varied. At tented tables outside Collegetown Bagels, a popular student hangout, several recent graduates explained how the campus felt unusually sad, even somber. But inside the Statler Hotel, at a summit for alumni volunteers, there was more of a circle-the-wagons spirit.
Lee Hendelman, a volunteer who studied business at Cornell, said that he had continued to donate and be involved with Cornell even after being upset with how it had handled the divisive protests after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. And he would do so again.
“The only way to make things better is to be part of the solution, not to run away,” he said. “And so I feel the same way about this, as difficult as it is.”
Susan Littman, another alumna at the summit, said she had heard a variety of opinions on the administration’s actions from fellow alumni, but that the volunteers on campus this week were supportive overall.
“A lot of us even know the administrators because we’ve been going to these events, and they’re, by and large, really good people,” she said. “They’re trying really hard to deal appropriately with a very delicate situation.”
Zane Irwin and Emily Steel contributed reporting.
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