Scott MacLeod and Susan Hack are co-founders of The Sophie Fund, a nonprofit organization in Ithaca established in memory of their daughter Sophie to advocate for mental health initiatives. They can be reached at thesophiefund2016@gmail.com.
Editor's Note: This article discusses sexual assault.
In the case of the alleged gang-rape at the Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024, the focus is naturally on pursing belated justice for Jane Doe, who filed a civil lawsuit in September against her alleged perpetrators, Cornell University and other parties.
Attention is also on how the Cornell University Police Department and the Tompkins County District Attorney handled the student’s allegation — the DA said the CUPD provided insufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges.
By Oct. 1, news reports said that CUPD omitted the victim’s “unequivocal statement that she had been raped,” as Governor Kathy Hochul stated when discussing the case and the DA. Hochul then appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James to launch a new investigation.
The Sophie Fund has called on the Cornell Board of Trustees to remove University President Michael I. Kotlikoff, but not only because of his administration’s disturbing handling of this particular case.
As disappointed as we are by the failures of individual Cornell officials in handling Jane Doe’s case, ultimately it is a system failure that requires systemic change.
Replacing the top leader is the way to begin and signal that change.
For many years, Cornell administrations have tolerated Cornell’s rape culture to the point of complicity in it. This is amply demonstrated in regular surveys of Cornell students.
The Cornell Surveys on Sexual Assault and Related Misconduct, which are required by New York State Education Law Article 129-B, show that an overwhelming number of female students report having been sexually assaulted on campus. Most are not reported to authorities, and few result in accountability.
We are demanding that Kotlikoff be replaced by a leader who will unequivocally embrace the need for, and execute, immediate and robust zero-tolerance policies and practices toward terminating the rape culture at Cornell.
Kotlikoff has lost our confidence and undoubtedly the confidence of many Ithaca citizens as well as Cornell students, staff, faculty and alumni. We also call on the new leader to remove relevant members of Kotlikoff’s leadership team and replace them with officials who will pursue systemic change at Cornell in all areas of student mental health, well-being and safety.
Hochul has demanded that Cornell commission outside counsel to undertake an independent review of its actions in the Jane Doe case. She has questioned whether Cornell may have intentionally thwarted victim allegations for the sake of its prestige. The Board of Trustees announced on Oct. 6 that it retained a law firm to undertake an independent review of Cornell's actions in the Jane Doe case as demanded by Hochul.
“No institution gets to protect its reputation at the expense of a young person seeking justice,” Hochul said. We are grateful Hochul emphasized that she also wants answers to “serious questions about Cornell’s campus culture and its systems for prevention, reporting, and response.” However, we expect, whatever the new investigations bring, that without new leadership, Cornell will pay lip service to reform and fail to follow through on tangible change with transparency and accountability.
As the parents of a Cornell student who died by suicide in Ithaca, we have spent 10 years advocating for systemic change in Cornell’s student mental health policies and practices.
In 2018, then President Martha E. Pollack commissioned a task force to review student mental health, but the University has repeatedly rejected requests to fully inform the campus or Ithaca communities about what it did with the recommendations the task force made in 2020.
We have specifically and repeatedly warned Cornell University administrators about the need for robust new policies to end the cycle of sexual assault on their campus.
In our April 2017 letter to then-President Martha E. Pollack asking for the task force, we noted:
“[Cornell’s] failure to develop a policy and strategy that addresses the disturbing mental health-related problem of sexual violence against Cornell students and provides effective support for victims of sexual violence.”
“A lack of institutional accountability for Cornell’s mental health policies, programs, and practices.”
“An institutional mindset reflecting complacency and defensiveness that appears to prioritize Cornell’s public image over the welfare of students struggling with mental disorders.”
“A system of accountability would include a zero-tolerance program with robust measures to fight against rape and sexual violence, and hazing, and equally robust legal and psychological support services for victims.”
“31.6 percent—nearly 1 in 3—reported being victims of rape or sexual battery during their years in college; 9.8 percent of undergraduate female students participating in a recent campus climate survey reported having been the victims of rape or attempted rape since enrolling at Cornell.”
Yet, today, a decade later, Cornell administrators find themselves defending a lawsuit brought by the victim of an alleged gang rape on their campus.
Students are outraged, with some saying news of the case has emotionally impacted them. Many alumni are similarly outraged, and some donors are threatening to hold back. Prospective students are reconsidering applications to their ‘dream school.’
The Cornell administration’s tolerance of a rape culture has predictably resulted in its worst nightmare: a “national scandal,” a virtual nuclear strike on the University’s credibility, reputation and carefully crafted and protected public image.
It is long past time for change at Cornell. Enough is enough.
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