Jane Doe said she felt ‘unsupported and disbelieved’ by Cornell president in letter sent to faculty leaders

A woman who sued Cornell University last month over an alleged gang rape at a fraternity house in 2024 said she felt “unsupported and disbelieved” by Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff shortly after she reported her alleged sexual assault, according to a letter she wrote to two senior Cornell faculty members.

The 101-page complaint — in which the woman is identified as Jane Doe — prompted a re-opening of an investigation into her claims and a re-examination of how universities across the US handle allegations of sexual assault. It also prompted Cornell students and faculty members to call for a vote of no confidence in the administration

Cornell professors grilled Kotlikoff about their concerns on October 14 as they moved toward a no-confidence vote.

Doe said in the letter that following her reporting of her alleged assault, the president of her sorority spoke with Kotlikoff, who Doe says asked her something “along the lines of,” “Why did she wait so long to report it?” according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN.

The sorority president “interpreted his question as an expression of doubt in the veracity of my story,” according to Doe’s letter, which acknowledges that the information is from “a second-hand account.” “It diminished my confidence in the administration’s ability to approach my experience with the understanding, sensitivity, and fairness I had hoped for and expected from what had been my dream school, “ the letter reads.

A Cornell University spokesperson disputed that account, telling CNN, “The second-hand account of the question asked by President Kotlikoff in a January 2025 meeting in the letter is incorrect, based on a documented first-hand account. The question ‘why did it take so long for the assault to be reported’ was directed at bystanders who did not use Cornell’s anonymous tip line, despite ongoing social media activity about the incident in October 2024. He was not questioning Jane Doe’s reporting.”

CNN has reached out to Doe’s attorney for comment and also reached out to an attorney for the sorority.

Doe was allegedly assaulted in the early morning of October 20, 2024, and she reported the incident to Cornell University police on November 8, CNN previously reported.

Doe sent the letter through her attorneys to the Dean of Faculty and the Speaker of the Faculty Senate the day Cornell’s Faculty Senate met to deliberate a vote of No Confidence over Kotlikoff’s leadership.

Doe said she did not want to “prescribe how the Senate should interpret this account, but rather to provide information that its members may wish to consider or investigate further,” the letter reads.

“It is important to me that the Faculty Senate be made aware of this letter so that its members can make an informed choice about how they wish to consider or act upon the information it contains,” Doe wrote.

The letter was never shared to the larger body, according to two Cornell professors.

Cornell professor Paul Ortiz, who sponsored the Senate’s no confidence vote, told CNN, “I am disappointed that the letter that Jane Doe sent to Cornell faculty has still not been shared with the faculty and that we are only learning about it because of media coverage.”

In an email to Faculty Senate members on Tuesday morning, which CNN also obtained, Cornell’s Dean of Faculty Chris Schaffer emailed members of the Senate to confirm he received Doe’s letter on October 14.

“In the interests of transparency, I am writing now to inform the Senate that I received this communication, that I passed it on to the Office of the General Counsel, and that they have sent it to the investigatory team led by Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates,” Schaffer wrote.

CNN’s Hanna Park, Danya Gainor, Holly Yan, Gloria Pamino, Avery Wang and Blair Chavis contributed to this report.

据一名女子写给康奈尔大学两位高级教员的信中所述，该女子上个月就2024年在兄弟会宿舍遭遇轮奸一事起诉了康奈尔大学。信中称，在她举报自己遭受性侵犯后不久，她感到康奈尔大学校长迈克尔·科特利科夫“不支持她，也不相信她”。

这份长达101页的投诉——其中该女子化名为简·多伊——促使校方重新启动对她指控的调查，并重新审视美国各大学处理性侵指控的方式。此外，康奈尔大学的学生和教职员工还呼吁对校方进行不信任投票。

10 月 14 日，康奈尔大学的教授们就他们的担忧质问了科特利科夫，当时他们正准备进行不信任投票。

据 CNN 获得的信件副本显示，Doe 在信中说，在她举报自己遭到性侵犯后，她所在姐妹会的会长与 Kotlikoff 进行了交谈，Doe 说 Kotlikoff 问了她一些类似“为什么她等了这么久才举报​​？”的问题。

据 Doe 的信中所述，这位姐妹会主席“将他的问题解读为对我的故事真实性的怀疑”，信中也承认这些信息来自“二手资料”。信中写道：“这削弱了我对校方处理我的经历的能力的信心，我原本希望并期待这所我梦寐以求的学校能够给予我理解、敏感和公平的对待。”

康奈尔大学发言人驳斥了这一说法，并告诉CNN：“信中关于科特利科夫校长在2025年1月会议上提出的问题的二手描述是不正确的，有确凿的第一手资料证实了这一点。他提出的问题是‘为什么袭击事件过了这么久才被举报’，这个问题是针对那些没有使用康奈尔大学匿名举报热线的旁观者提出的，尽管在2024年10月，社交媒体上关于这起事件的讨论仍在继续。他并没有质疑简·多伊的举报。”

CNN已联系Doe的律师征求意见，也联系了该姐妹会的律师。

据 CNN 此前报道，Doe 于 2024 年 10 月 20 日凌晨遭到袭击，并于 11 月 8 日向康奈尔大学警方报案。

在康奈尔大学教务委员会召开会议，审议对科特利科夫领导能力的不信任投票的当天，多伊通过她的律师将这封信寄给了教务长和教务委员会议长。

信中写道，Doe表示她不想“规定参议院应该如何解读这一说法，而是提供一些信息，供其成员考虑或进一步调查”。

“对我来说，让教务委员会了解这封信非常重要，这样其成员才能就如何考虑或处理信中所含信息做出明智的选择，”Doe 写道。

据两位康奈尔大学教授称，这封信从未向更高层级的机构公开。

康奈尔大学教授保罗·奥尔蒂斯是参议院不信任投票的发起人，他告诉 CNN：“我感到失望的是，简·多伊寄给康奈尔大学教职员工的信件至今仍未与教职员工分享，我们只是通过媒体报道才得知此事。”

CNN 还获得了康奈尔大学教务长克里斯·沙弗周二上午发给教务委员会成员的一封电子邮件，他在邮件中确认他已于 10 月 14 日收到了约翰·多伊的信件。

“为了保持透明度，我现在写信告知参议院，我已收到这份文件，并已将其转交给总法律顾问办公室，他们已将其转交给由前副司法部长萨莉·耶茨领导的调查小组，”沙弗写道。

CNN的Hanna Park、Danya Gainor、Holly Yan、Gloria Pamino、Avery Wang和Blair Chavis对本报道亦有贡献。