Cornell University has tapped former Obama deputy attorney general Sally Yates to review sex assault handling after a fraternity case ignited campus protests and a state criminal probe.
Breitbart News reported that Cornell trustees announced Tuesday that Yates will lead a review of how the university handles sexual misconduct complaints in Ithaca, New York.
The review will examine investigations of sexual assault and sexual harassment reports, student support, the disciplinary process, campus police responses, and oversight of fraternities, sororities, and other student organizations.
Trustees acted after days of outrage, a civil lawsuit, and campus demonstrations over the school’s response to allegations tied to the Chi Phi fraternity.
A woman known publicly only as Jane Doe told campus police in November 2024 that she had been sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi fraternity brothers the month before. She said she was pressured into drinking and taking drugs.
Last month she sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity, and others. No criminal charges have been filed.
Cornell shut down its Chi Phi chapter. The university said it expelled some students and suspended others after its own disciplinary process.
The New York Post reported that two of the seven were expelled and the others suspended, and that the lawsuit claims the men drugged her with ketamine. The Post also said more than 1,000 protesters marched, demanding firmer action and the president’s resignation.
On Monday, students, professors, and others thronged a campus plaza to protest the university’s response. The pressure did not stop at the quad.
New York’s governor called for an independent review of Cornell’s handling of the matter. That is the review Yates will now lead.
Just The News reported that Gov. Kathy Hochul directed Attorney General Letitia James to review the case as well, alongside the university’s invitation to Yates. James is now running a criminal investigation even though local authorities have filed no charges.
That dual-track pressure has turned a campus discipline fight into a statewide political event. Defense counsel has already raised fairness questions about James’s role, a point covered when a defense lawyer pressed James to step aside over prior remarks.
State power, campus protests, and a civil suit are now moving at once. Cornell’s answer was to hire a high-profile outsider.
Yates served as a deputy attorney general in the Obama administration. Cornell’s special committee chair framed her hiring as both case-specific and institutional.
Anne Meinig Smalling, chair of the special committee, said the Jane Doe matter requires hard scrutiny and that the school’s duty runs wider than one file.
"The questions raised by the Jane Doe matter warrant a rigorous examination of Cornell’s response to that case, but our responsibility is broader."
Fox News reported Smalling also said Yates brings experience, independence, and judgment to the work. The same account noted the seven former Chi Phi brothers are accused in the lawsuit of drugging and raping a female student in October 2024, and that the accused maintain consent or non-participation.
Public heat around the case has been intense. One lawyer for an accused student urged people to let evidence, not noise, decide the outcome.
"There has been a tremendous amount of public discussion and pressure surrounding this case... the facts should speak for themselves."
That due-process argument sits beside claims from the other direction. One accused student has already cast the encounter in sharply different terms, as detailed when a Cornell frat brother said he was too intoxicated to consent and described the accuser as the aggressor.
Strip away the press conference language and the sequence is plain. An alleged October 2024 assault. A November 2024 campus police complaint. A civil lawsuit the following month. A fraternity chapter closed. Some expulsions and suspensions. No criminal charges. Then protests, a governor’s demand, an attorney general investigation, and a former Obama Justice official brought in to inspect the machine.
If Cornell followed its own rules, the review should show it. If campus police, Title IX staff, or Greek oversight failed, the record should show that too. Hiring Yates does not erase either possibility.
Political figures have already used the case as a national talking point. That includes progressive voices whose public claims have collided with sworn material and campus records, a tension laid out when AOC’s Cornell gang-rape story met the documentary file.
Fair treatment questions cut both ways. Victims need a process that is prompt, serious, and competent. Accused students need a process that is evidence-driven, not run by plaza chants or partisan prosecutors. President Trump has already warned that the fraternity members will not get a fair shake with James running the state probe, a fairness fight tracked when Trump said Cornell fraternity members face a stacked deck.
Cornell now wants credit for calling in an outsider. The test is simpler than the résumé. Does the review name concrete failures, fix broken incentives, and apply the same standard to every student, or does it manage headlines until the next blowup?
Elite campuses love emergency reviews after the crowd forms. Real accountability is quieter: clear rules, honest investigations, and due process that does not bend to politics.