Image source, Getty ImagesNew York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that state police will now investigate all future sexual offence complaints at Cornell University after the fallout from a gang rape accusation at the institution.
It follows the handling of a 2024 alleged campus rape incident, where a student, known anonymously as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit against Cornell after she was allegedly drugged and gang raped at a fraternity.
The university, after initially defending its disciplinary measures, acknowledged it fell short in its handling of her case.
The fallout has continued to rile the university. Cornell’s administration – including its president – is facing a no-confidence vote by its faculty.
Watch: New York governor blasts handling of Cornell rape inquiry
Hochul said New York State Police signed an agreement with Cornell University so that all sexual offence complaints, which had historically fallen under the jurisdiction of university police, will be immediately referred to state police instead.
“When someone reports sexual assault,” Hochul said on Thursday, they deserve “to know their allegations will be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated by law enforcement trained to support survivors”.
“Survivors should be able to trust the institutions responsible for protecting them,” the governor added.
Backlash against the Ivy League university has been intense since Jane Doe filed her lawsuit in mid-September.
On Wednesday, the institution’s Faculty Senate, a governing body composed of professors and other academic staff, met behind closed-doors and decided to move forward with voting on a resolution of no-confidence against the administration and the university’s President Michael Kotlikoff.
The vote will be open for faculty starting on Friday and run until 6 November. The vote is largely symbolic but could intensify pressure on changing the university’s leadership.
Earlier this month, the university announced a series of measures responding to the alleged assault, including adding sexual assault investigators to its police force.
Hochul had said she was “deeply disturbed” by how the investigation was handled. She appointed a special prosecutor, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, earlier this month to oversee a reopened investigation into whether criminal charges are warranted.
The woman at the centre of the case filed a civil lawsuit alleging that she was drugged and raped by seven men at a fraternity house at the university in 2024.
She claimed that Cornell failed to protect her or adequately punish the men, who have now become known as the Cornell Seven.
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