Cornell brings in ex-deputy attorney general Sally Yates to look into sexual assault complaints | CBC News

'It is imperative that Cornell be willing to examine itself,' school trustee says

A former high-ranking Department of Justice official will look at how Cornell handles sexual misconduct complaints, university trustees announced Tuesday as they tried to address an outpouring of anger over allegations of a 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.

"It is imperative that Cornell be willing to examine itself with the same rigor we expect of others," trustee chair Anne Meinig Smalling said in a statement.

No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell was shut down, and the Ivy League university has said it expelled some students and suspended others.

Cornell University faculty prepare non-confidence vote against administration

Yates will look at how the woman's complaint was handled and at the oversight of fraternities, sororities and other campus groups, Cornell said.

Cornell protesters demand university president resign over handling of alleged frat-house gang rape

Lawyers for two of the former students denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Court records show that during an investigation Cornell conducted under the federal Title IX law, some of the accused students contended that the sexual activity was consensual.

Advocate calls for 'overhaul' of student groups to address harms on campuses like Cornell

New York's attorney general is now conducting a criminal investigation, and the state's governor called for an independent review of Cornell's handling of the matter — the review that Yates now will lead.

Yates had a decades-long career at the Justice Department, serving for years as the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta and later as a deputy attorney general.

ListenAllegations in Cornell 7 case fit pattern of institutional failure on sexual assault, says sociologist