Cornell University announced Tuesday that a special committee of its Board of Trustees has retained former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to lead an independent review of the school's sexual assault prevention and response systems. Yates is now a partner at the law firm King & Spalding. The university said Yates and her team will have "full independence" in conducting the review — the school's weightiest response yet as the campus sexual assault scandal escalates.
Under the mandate, the review covers how Cornell "prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault and related misconduct on campus." As part of that broader brief, Yates's team will conduct a detailed review of the university's response to the October 2024 Chi Phi fraternity party allegations involving the plaintiff known as Jane Doe — including whether Cornell followed its own policies and procedures. Jane Doe sued Cornell, seven fraternity members and others last month, alleging the school failed to adequately investigate and punish those involved. Lawyers for two of the accused students denied they participated in a sexual assault; during Cornell's earlier Title IX process, some accused students contended the sexual activity was consensual.
The announcement landed in a week of peak campus pressure. On Monday, large numbers of students rallied on a campus plaza in solidarity with Jane Doe, demanding firmer action against sexual violence, greater transparency and an overhaul of the disciplinary process. Monday evening, members of Cornell's Faculty Senate introduced a resolution calling for a vote of no confidence against the administration over its handling of the case — a formal rebuke of leadership, often used to force change or resignations. Labor history professor and Senate member Paul Ortiz told CNN that hundreds of students, alumni and staff had demanded the Senate "do something," adding that some students who approached faculty said they had themselves endured sexual assault.
Yates spent decades at the Justice Department, serving as the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta and as deputy attorney general from 2015 to 2017, before joining King & Spalding in 2018 to lead its crisis management practice. Her signature independent investigation came in 2022, when the U.S. Soccer Federation hired her to examine abuse and misconduct allegations in the National Women's Soccer League: she led an all-woman team of lawyers through 200 interviews and nearly 100,000 documents, producing a 172-page report. Handling highly sensitive abuse investigations is precisely why she was chosen.
The case is now moving on three tracks: the New York attorney general is conducting a criminal investigation (after the governor routed the case around the local prosecutor to Attorney General Letitia James); Jane Doe's civil lawsuit is proceeding; and on campus, the Yates-led independent review. The review carries no subpoena power — neither did the 2022 soccer investigation, which relied on voluntary cooperation. Cornell has not said when the review will conclude or whether its report will be made public.
Yates's conclusions will effectively write Cornell's reform list: whether the disciplinary process gets rewritten, where the reporting-and-support chain broke, and whether administrators are held accountable. For an Ivy League school facing a no-confidence motion, hiring an outside investigator known for independence is both firefighting and self-exposure — what the report says, and how much of it goes public, will be examined under a microscope.