Professor Begüm Adalet is an associate professor in the Department of Government. She can be reached at ba375@cornell.edu. Chloe Ahmann is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology. She can be reached at chloeahmann@cornell.edu. Catherine Appert is an associate professor in the Department of Music. She can be reached at cma249@cornell.edu. They write on behalf of the undersigned faculty members.
Dear Cornell University students:
Over the past two weeks, we have been reckoning with the University’s failure to prioritize your safety and well-being. We are outraged by the horrific events that transpired at the Chi Phi fraternity house, by systems that failed Jane Doe at every level, by the wider culture of sexual assault plaguing our campus and by the structural violence that allows it to continue with impunity. We are incensed by the administration’s active and ongoing role in fostering that culture, concealing its workings and protecting its perpetrators. At the same time, we apologize for not doing enough as faculty to hear you, to create spaces where you feel safe to share your experiences, or to intervene in existing campus structures.
By “structural” violence, we mean that this incident is not a one-off problem, but rather indicative of an epidemic at Cornell. We also refer to the fact that Cornell administration has worked to hide — rather than confront, mitigate and make amends for — other sexual assaults, like those perpetrated by the Weill Cornell faculty member who assaulted hundreds of men and boys over the a course of 10 years, resulting in a $1 billion settlement whose details remain unknown to most of us.
By “concealing its workings,” we point to a range of opaque and top-down processes through which the administration launders this violence — such as ad hoc committees, slow-moving task forces, working groups made of cherry-picked representatives and highly scripted virtual town halls with questions submitted and screened in advance instead of collective spaces of conversation for faculty, staff and students.
As faculty instructors and advisors, we want to be absolutely clear: this administration does not speak for us. We will not allow the horrific sexual violence experienced by Jane Doe and others in our community to be swept under the rug. It is not lost on us that the administration has acted swiftly, and voluntarily publicized its interventions, in other disciplinary cases. And it is not lost on us that students found responsible for sexual violence have been punished far less harshly, for example, than nonviolent student protestors arrested for speaking up during panel discussions or banging pots and pans. What this double standard suggests is that Cornell’s administration is motivated by money and power, not by justice, nor even by the much lower moral standard of fidelity to its own processes.
As frontline educators directly in touch with students, we have heard too many harrowing stories of abuse over the years. We need to know that if we refer you to suggested campus resources — not least the formal bodies in place to investigate assault — you will be protected. But we are all too aware that the campus mechanisms that promise to protect survivors often end up revictimizing them. We know this because of your advocacy, your journalism, your unvarnished honesty and rage.
We also know that there are countless stories of sexual assault that never come to light. For too long, survivors have been left alone to process wounds like this in silence and in shame. This has only gotten worse in recent years. Now, we hear from students across campus that speaking up about sexual assault feels dangerous — especially for international students who reasonably fear reprisal from the University. Many of us have felt the chilling effect of repressive measures designed to isolate and disempower faculty and students. This culture of silence is by design. Silence breeds unquestioned loyalty, encourages groupthink and normalizes victim-blaming. In contrast, voicing criticism of processes that are at best insufficient and at worst violent reflects a commitment to integrity and transparency in our community. Students and faculty need to know that calling out problems and bad actors will be met with accountability, not retaliation.
As members of the Cornell University faculty, our allegiance is to you, our undergraduate and graduate students. You are not alone. We are committed to your safety and well-being in our classes, our research labs, our campus, our community. We are working to act quickly, and at the same time, we are invested in bringing about long-term changes to institutional structure and culture at Cornell.
In the current moment, we commit to be present and provide support for student protest movements. We are here, now, to listen and to share confidential resources with students navigating current structures for reporting sexual assault, or to direct you to supportive, knowledgeable faculty and advocates who can help. While most faculty are not designated reporters, some are, which means they are legally required to report sexual assault to Cornell’s Title IX office. You should ask whether someone is a designated reporter before disclosing information you do not want shared beyond that conversation.
In the long term, we commit to fostering collective spaces for conversation and dialogue at every level of University life. We commit to collaborating with student organizations on a vision for structural change and to working to ensure those changes occur. We commit to educating ourselves and our colleagues about University procedures, about campus and community resources and about support and advocacy organizations that are independent of Cornell. We commit to engaging all possible avenues of faculty governance to make Cornell safer, including thorough reforms of the Title IX process, campus discipline and Greek Life.
Cornell is not a singular entity. It is a community of students, faculty and staff gathered from around the world. As a collective, we can work to reclaim our voice and use it to challenge and change what is wrong with our institution. We are proud of Jane Doe for being immensely brave, and of the student journalists who helped bring her story to public light with the courageous exposé, “Cornell Won’t. We Will.”
As faculty, We Will Too.
As of Oct. 16, 2026, 209 members of faculty have signed this letter. If you are Cornell faculty and you would like to support this statement, please add your name and affiliation as a signatory here. This letter, and a running list of all signatories, can be found here.
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